The Lonely Baby
by Cybil Kitty
Summary: Little Alyssa Carter disappeared years ago, nobody ever found her remains yet her spirit sought out revenge, and now Cyrus thinks she would be a nice addition to the basement, and Billy thinks she will be a great new playmate. Cute BillyXOC Friendship
1. Missing

**_Cybil-kitty_**- Hi! Woot I'm hyper! I've just recently fallen in love with this movie so lets do a fanfic! (I love Royce so much)

So anyway as you might of guessed this is a OC new ghost, yay… also I have habits of not making sense so this will probably be a random fun fanfic (I honestly do have a plot it's just I like fun things…)

* * *

Ms Carter shuffled in her seat in the office of a local police station; waiting for the sergeant to come back and explain why they had called her in today did they find something? Had some good member of the public come forward with information about her daughter?

The man came back in the room with a grim face, he held a folder in his hand that he placed down before her and sat down in the large chair. The pair stared at each other for a moment, he wondering how to break the news to her and she desperately pleading for good news with her light green eyes.

"Your daughter's disappearance has officially become a cold case so we've ended the search…" he stated so blankly that it felt cruel, she lowered her eyes down to the file on the table and stared at the awful bright red words that had been stamped on.

**Presumed Dead**

She didn't say anything, didn't cry or scream she merely continued to stare at the red letters before slowly reaching out a thin hand and opening the folder, staring tearfully at the small photo of her baby.

Alyssa couldn't be dead… not her little baby girl! She had to be somewhere! Somewhere they would still be able to find her and bring her home, she felt the anger raising and threatening to burst, looking back at the sergeant's cold and emotionless face made her snap.

"She's not dead! She's still somewhere out there and it's your job to go find her!" she screamed, so loud that she managed to frighten herself; he stared back at her calmly before shaking his head.

"Ms Carter please, we have searched six years for your daughter, we have led the whole town's police force, as well as two neighbouring town's on a manhunt, we've sent our dog teams out, I've personally checked up on all of the false leads, there's nothing else we can do" he said watching in silence as the tears began to run down the poor mother's face.

"But you never found a body…" she sniffled attempting to wipe the salty water from her face, the sergeant sighed and leaned back in his chair, resting his head against it.

"Yes but it's obvious whoever took her has hidden her remains extremely well…" he replied, Ms Carter felt a wave of sickness consume her whole being at his words.

'_Hidden her remains'_

The thought of it made bile rise up from her stomach and she had to fight to keep it down, a million thoughts of what could have happened entered her mind. Did someone really take her little girl away, do terrible things to her and then hide what was left of her so well that there was no chance of anyone ever finding her?

She remembered all the episodes of C.S.I she used to enjoy sitting down to watch on Saturday nights while her two beloved daughters were safely tucked in their warm beds. All the horrible things that happened to those victims, chopped up into tiny little pieces, hidden in air vents, in wells, torn apart and fed to wild animals, dumped while they were still alive in wet concrete. Before she had enjoyed the mystery of the stories and watched fascinated at how the characters would go about finding clues and solving the puzzles but now she couldn't bare to watch it, every time she watched some pretty girl getting taken away and then to be found, their bodies horribly mutilated and she would always think 'Is this what happened to my baby?'

"I think I should go now…" she whimpered, shakily standing up and turning away without another look at the sergeant or at the folder, knowing what would happen to it, it would be stuck on some shelf and forgotten about, it felt more like they were sticking her baby on the shelf and forgetting about her… It was their job after all, just going from one case to the next, never letting themselves become emotionally involved with the victim. But she could not forget, she had to keep going with her eldest daughter on their own now, leaving little Alyssa somewhere deep in their memories.

She slowly walked out of the police station and got into her old little car and headed home.

Losing her youngest child left her feeling more like she was the one who had died instead, lifeless and empty with a sand papered dry feeling in her throat; it was something she couldn't cure no matter what she did. It seemed particularly cruel that she couldn't remember the last time she had spoken with her daughter or even seen her.

Her father had been ill with cancer and she was so distracted that she honestly couldn't remember anything of her daughter at the time of her disappearance. She had been so distraught with the agonizing thought of losing a beloved family member but when she did, it was the wrong one. She knew that in all honesty that she would of much rather prefer that her father died than her daughter disappearing, he was eighty-one at the time, he had a good life with a loving wife and he had raised four beautiful children, while Alyssa had only been seven. She was always so full of life and happiness, she was popular with the other children because she was so friendly, and she had even chosen what she wanted to do when she grew up.

She wanted to sing. Ever since she had first leaned to talk she had wanted to sing. Alyssa always told her mother that she was going to be a great singer and become famous and live in a big house and have lots of ponies.

But someone had stolen all of that away from her, what kind of monster would want to harm such an innocent child?

Another thought that hurt her was the fact that Alyssa had always been very serious about letting her mother know where she was, and had even insisted that she was given a mobile phone so she would always be able to call her mother whenever she wanted, and she was for her Christmas present, it was a cheap model of course, so that it wouldn't matter so much if she accidentally dropped it or was too rough with it, as all children are. But nevertheless she was ecstatic about it and would phone her mother during the lunch break at school just to let her know how she was doing.

If she was going to a friend's house, even if it was the kind old Mrs Potter next door, she would always leave little messages on the fridge, written in her scrappy childish handwriting and in her favourite pink crayon.

It made it even more painful that this time there was no goodbye, there was no phone call or little message stuck on the fridge with her little strawberry shaped magnet holding it up.

She would never get to say goodbye to her beloved baby.

* * *

Cybil kitty- Wow that was depressing to write… This will be the fourth story I've used this character for (Even though she's been heavily changed) but it still has a feeling of her… weird so Alyssa was pretty much based on my other character Chie, who was also a ghost (she was stabbed to death) oh how sad…

So anyway reviews would be very appreciated! **(Hint Hint)**


	2. Meetings

In forest a few miles away from a number of small towns and villages there was a large secluded lake, no matter how beautiful and peaceful it seemed to a person it couldn't hide the tragic events that had happened in this place almost a decade earlier, dark secrets that laid on the bottom of the lake bed. It also happened to be the place where a little spirit stayed waiting for someone to come looking for her.

From a couple of miles below the water's surface, deep within the fresh water down along with fishes and other aquatic animals a haunting song could be heard.

"The winter is so bright and pretty, though it's a pity

The snow falls, the snow falls

Washing away all that bad

Memories that vanish with the cold

I don't want then back, they're gone, they're old

It continues, it continues

A winter that never ends

Ah, I hear the song of the night when the snow of sin fell

That snow, this heart…

All becomes stained with the colour of darkness…"

The melody suddenly stopped as the singer heard movement above the surface, after a few brief moments of unwise reasoning to investigate the spirit slowly made her way the surface and looked around. She could hear cars, quite a number of cars by the sound of it, from her place in the lake she watched as three black cars pulled up by the lakeside, one being a very posh and expensive looking one. She watched interestedly as a group of men wearing strange uniform poured out of the first two cars and began to set things up for something.

The small girl, who's name happened to be Alyssa Carter, couldn't help herself, she was just too damn curious and moved closer with such ease that a living person could never hope to have through the water, almost as if it wasn't there at all until she was sitting right at the bank with the cool water splashing around her ankles. For some reason that she could never understand she couldn't leave the water, no matter how much she tried she couldn't get on to dry land, and it really annoyed her.

She giggled to herself watching as the men ran around shouting to each other and moving objects, she gently lowered her body down into the shallow water and laid down, resting her chin on her hands and splashing her feet behind her. It was interesting seeing people for once, hardly anyone ever came to her lake and if they did they were trying to catch her fish, she didn't like that, they were her pets. She looked on with fascination as they began setting up some kind of big box made of glass.

Strange chanting began coming from some recording equipment one of the small groups of uniformed men had, it was weird… very weird… and slightly enchanting… She wanted to go near it. Alyssa cried out when her body started to move closer on it's own will, she fought against it trying to go back into the deeper water to hide, she couldn't leave her lake her sister would come to take her home soon, she needed to wait right here until then. She clang onto a large rock that stuck out of the water and tried to block out the sound of the chanting, glaring over her shoulder in the direction the odd sounds was coming from she noticed that the people seemed to be looking straight at her, nobody had seen her since she had been living in the lake.

She wailed loudly as she felt her body being pulled by something like a invisible force, but she still desperately held onto the rock, she had to stay right here! She knew her sister would come for her soon! Her small dripping wet hands lost their grip and she found herself being dragged into the box, forcefully being thrown in and before she realised what was happening two men had closed the box, trapping her inside.

Alyssa screamed out in absolute rage and banged her little fists against the glass of the box, she glared hatefully at a man in a posh suit calmly walk up the box and give her a smug look, along with scared man behind him, both of them were wearing glasses.

"Are you sure this is the one?" the older posh man asked without looking at the other who nodded his head forcefully.

"Yes, but she feels different from what I'd thought she would…" the scared man muttered looking from Alyssa to the old man and then back again.

"How so?" the old man asked, glaring at his companion.

"Well… not so evil… she doesn't feel right" he replied looking nervous, taking small pot of tablets out of a pocket and swallowing one down.

"You've obviously had too many of these!" the old man snapped angrily snatching the pot of tablets and throwing it into the lake, hitting the water's surface with a small splash. "I told you to keep a clear head when you're working!" he yelled at the man defiantly very annoyed with him. He turned back to Alyssa, watching as she made pitiful attempts at finding a way out of her cage, after finding nothing and giving up as she settled for simply banging on the glass again and screaming at him.

"What is she saying?" the old man asked looking back to the other one who seemed to be slightly in pain.

"Uh, she's saying she wants to come out and that we're mean stupid old men" he replied staring at Alyssa who was giving him an extremely hateful expression and he stuck his tongue out at her in response.

"I see…. Well anyway, pack everything up and let's head back!" the older man called out to the group of uniformed men.

* * *

Royce awoke to the sound of chanting, he recognised it from when he had been trapped, it was a signal that another ghost was coming. That was just great, the last thing he needed was another overly annoying person to be trapped with, he merely hoped that they wouldn't be as bad as The Jackal, god that man got on his nerves badly, he had promised himself that one of the first things he would do when he escaped from his cube was beat the shit out of that lunatic with his trusty baseball bat.

He watched interestedly as the once empty cube beside his began to fill with water, at least two feet of water and a luggage case flickered into slight, sitting in the middle of the cube under the water. It was already becoming clear what had happened to this ghost, murdered and they're body stuffed into a case and dumped into the sea or a river, how pleasant…

"What's going on, Prince?" he heard The Hammer call from his own cell down the hall as he couldn't see.

"Is it a girl?! Girl?!" The Jackal cried excitedly from down the corridor near Hammer, the thought of a new female making him go wild and claw and scratch at the glass that kept him imprisoned, desperately wanting to come nearer and see for himself.

"Shut up you demented pervert!" Royce yelled back, blindly swinging his bat at a glass wall out of anger, The Jackal simply laughed at him and continued to try clawing his way out. Royce let out an irritated growl and rested his baseball bat on his shoulder, glancing back at the case in the cell next to him, he thought that whoever was in there would be like The Torso and cut into pieces, there was no way a full grown adult would be able to fit in that thing.

He quickly changed his mind when he saw a small hand coming out through an unzipped part in the corner of the case and a young girl voice whining as she tried opening the case from the inside. That was fucking great, another brat, Billy was bad enough with his never ending whining, wailing, crying, moaning, temper tantrums and general non stop annoyingness. He took back his earlier thoughts; he would rather have another psychopath in with him than an overly annoying little brat.

Billy had other ideas though, he had like Royce realised there was another child in there and couldn't be more happy at the thought, finally there was someone around his age to play with. He watched excitedly from his cell on the other side of this new girl's, pressing himself up against the glass as much as he could. The girl finally managed to open her case and violently threw the top of it open, uncurling her body from her previous cramped position and sat up, looking thoroughly relieved. He stared blankly at her, she was very pretty in his opinion, even though her skin was a bright blue frozen colour and she was absolutely soaked with water, it seemed to generate from her very being, dripping from her light blonde hair that fell a few inches above her shoulders and clothing, running from her body and face, so much it eerily looked like she was forever crying from her dim and dead hazel eyes. She was also a little younger and smaller than him that was ok too, it meant he could take care of her and that he wouldn't be the youngest person in the glass house anymore.

Her water soaked clothes were very cute too, what she had died in really suited her, a light pink T-shirt underneath a dark blue dungaree dress that was tight to her body until it reached her thighs where it became frilly she didn't have any shoes on and he presumed she died inside a house without them on or somehow lost them before her death with the only other thing she wore was a silver charm bracelet around her left wrist along with rope tied around both wrists and ankles, he didn't like the idea of that though, she was tied up before she was killed, he wanted to find whoever had killed her and tear them apart himself. He also noticed quite a lot of blood that stained the inner side of her thighs and ran down her legs, though to his young mind he couldn't understand where it had come from, he merely knew that something had badly hurt her.

"What's your name?" he asked tapping on the glass between their cells, he smiled when she looked at him, taking in his appearance as well and smiling back at him.

"Alyssa" she replied then taking her attention from him and looking around at her new surroundings and looking at Royce, who had slumped down leaning his back against his car and was glaring at her.

"That's a boring name" Billy frowned "I'll call you Ally" he said nodding to himself, he liked the name, Ally, his Ally. He would make sure that none of the other ghosts would ever hurt her; she was going to be his best friend forever.

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Cybil kitty- Yes another chapter, um sorry it was sort of short and Ally hardly did anything, but I got in some Royce (YAY!) Lovely Lovely Royce! And I know you people are probably thinking 'Hang on a minute, the thirteenth ghost has to killed at the machine to open the eye' but it will all be explained sometime later… yes Also I didn't get any reviews the last time (Or what I would call reviews anyway…) , so can I have some now? Please? It makes me want to write faster….


	3. Run away!

Alyssa heard the other ghosts screaming and trying to attack something, peering down the corridor she saw the same posh man from before, he once again walked calmly up to stand in front of her cell and stare at her coldly but also with a small expression of pride in his evil eyes. They both stared at each other for a few silent moments, with the other ghosts simply waiting to see what would happen, along with an odd giggling coming from The Jackal. Alyssa let out a strange screech of anger and threw a plain bronze coloured door key she had been holding tightly in her hand, when it bounced off of the glass and landed with a splash in the water in her cell she stared blankly at him.

"… Ok… well that didn't work…" she muttered bending down into the water and scooping out her precious key, clenching it in her small hand. The man simply watched her as she began using the key to scratch at the glass trying to get to him. "Let me outta here you meanie!" she wailed pressing her hands on the glass, glaring out at him angrily as water ran down the glass from her hands. He looked at her strangely, she wasn't acting right. She was supposed to be trying to tear him apart, not whining like … well like a little girl. It worried him and after all Dennis had said earlier that she didn't feel right, but there was no way he could of made a mistake, she was the right ghost, so what was wrong with her?

He turned his eyes away in thought for a moment and noticed The Torn Prince's hateful glare, he smirked back at him, it was wonderful, all of his little pets were finally all together, and soon he would be able to open the eye.

"Hey you stupid old man! Why can't I get out?!" he looked back at Alyssa who was still pressed up against the glass trying to get out. No. this was not right, she acted if she was still alive. She was a strong ghost; a ghost that could tear humans apart without even physically touching them, why was she like this?

"What is your name?" he asked trying to remain calm and succeeding but inside he was panicking.

"Alyssa" she answered still glaring at him back had backed off from the glass and just stood in the cell beside her case watching him intently.

"How old are you?" he questioned becoming even more worried.

"Seven" Alyssa sighed, folding her thin arms over her chest huffily, why did she have to give out all of this information to some ancient old guy who had stuck her in a box?

"What is the last thing you remember before you were at the lake where I found you?" the man asked, she thought for a moment trying to remember, it didn't help her train of thought that all the other people who she hadn't really noticed before in the other cells were all interestedly staring at her, waiting for her to speak.

"I was walking home with my sister…" she replied watching with surprise as he once emotionless calm face go through a wide range of different emotions, panic, fear, anger and something else she wasn't quite sure what it was, all she knew was that he defiantly wasn't happy. But he quickly shook it off and a calm yet slightly smug expression took over on his face.

"Well no matter… Welcome to your knew home, my Lonely Baby" he said before turning away from her and heading back towards the staircase the lead out of the basement, ignoring the screeches and the evil looks from the other ghosts on the way out.

"Ally, are you ok?" Billy asked concerned, he didn't like the way that Cyrus had looked at her, very angry as if he wanted to hurt her. Alyssa turned to look at him with a sad expression on her and slowly nodded, sitting down in the water on top of her case. He was worried that she was quietly crying, but he couldn't tell with all of the water running down her dead face.

"I want to go home" she whined trying her hardest not to cry, she didn't want them thinking she was a cry-baby, everyone always called her that and she hated it, she couldn't help it if she cried a lot.

Jean silently watched the little girl who was in the cell opposite the corridor from hers, she was terribly young she obviously knew that many children died but they always past on into a better world, not stay on Earth being tortured, she knew that the only reason Billy was still around was because his stubborn behaviour caused him refuse to move on, that silly little boy never gave up on things he wanted, and he wanted to stay behind for some reason, but why did this new little girl stay? She didn't want to think about her death or the fact that her arms and legs had been bound or about the blood between her legs, who could do such a thing to such a small child?

Also why had Cyrus seemed so worried? Something was going on and she was determined to find out what… but first she had to find a way out of her cell. Looking back towards the children's cubes she noticed the way Billy was looking Alyssa, he looked so happy that it was cute, at least he wasn't alone anymore, and it would do him some good to have someone his own age around.

She wondered how the other ghosts would react to this new resident in the basement, at the end of the day whether they liked each other or not, they would be stuck together in here so they might as well try to get along. Billy obviously adored her, Royce didn't look happy, though more often than not Royce was never happy, but she knew that he was easily annoyed and probably wouldn't like the idea of another child, she knew that he hated Billy, she wasn't sure though if this was because Billy was a rather spoiled and stubborn child or that there was only one cell between them and he was the one Billy tried to talk with the most, seeing as he was so close.

Jean looked through the glass of her cell into Dana's, she was simply quietly standing there watching as things happened, she was a quiet girl so Jean didn't aspect a big reaction from her straight away, she might decide to reach out in her own time.

She guessed that George would accept Alyssa quickly, he liked children she supposed this was because he once had two of his own and missed being able to take care of them, he was kind to Billy so she saw no reason he wouldn't continue this pattern with Alyssa.

But she was worried what The Jackal would do, glancing down the corridor she could she him, smiling disturbingly and looking down towards the little girl, she was worried that when he noticed that Alyssa had sometime before her death been raped it might over excite him, and even though he couldn't physically get anywhere near her as they were all trapped, she still worried.

* * *

"What's wrong, Cyrus?" Dennis asked, watching the older man sitting at his desk in the library and then turning his gaze to Kalina who was frantically looking through the Arcanum Cyrus glared at him and then looked back through all the paper work on his desk.

"I thought you only wanted twelve ghosts, what's the kid for?" he asked still trying to get a answer out of his boss, Cyrus shot up and slammed his fists down onto the desk furiously.

"Well it turns out that SHE mistranslated the Latin text!" he yelled pointing to Kalina who looked fearfully at him and jumped up herself, holding the old book protectively to her chest.

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to!" she cried with a terrified expression on her face, she hated it when he was angry with her even when she tried her best to please him, why couldn't he see how much she cared about him?

"She mixed up the words for 'jump' and the phrase that means 'to come from'. So we do not need a thirteen ghost to jump into Hell, well need a ghost that is from Hell" Cyrus explained sitting back in his seat and tiredly rubbing his temples as he calmed down.

"Wait hang on, are you saying that little brat is from Hell?" Dennis asked confused "Sorry, but she doesn't seem like Hellish material to me" he said crossing his arms over his chest with an unconvinced expression on his face.

"No, The Lonely Baby is not from Hell but she was given power by demons to use for revenge" the older man explained, picking up a sheet of paper and skim reading the words. "But I don't understand why she didn't use those powers to stop us from taking her, and another thing is that she doesn't seem to remember her death…"

"Maybe if she acts like she's still alive and doesn't remember her death, then maybe she doesn't think she's dead" Kalina said quietly with her eyes turned down to the floor, both Cyrus and Dennis stared blankly at her with the same expression on their faces that clearly said 'Oh fuck she's right'

"How does a ghost forget their death? And another thing what do you mean she was given powers by demons, I don't know about you but I really don't think it's a good idea to fuck around with spirits that have demon friends" Dennis muttered as he body began to shake slightly as he got himself more worked up with all the bad thoughts of what could happen.

"Be quiet you" Cyrus replied only half listening to him "Kalina, my dear little Kalina, I think you've just fell upon your first good idea in a long time" he said giving a some kind of odd smile to the woman who instantly jumped up looking incredibly joyful.

"Really? So your not angry with me anymore?!" she cried happily, restraining herself from giving him a big kiss, she loved him so much and it filled her heart with happiness when he was pleased with her. Cyrus simply rolled his eyes and looked back down at his work and away from the overly gleeful woman grinning at him, but soon a small smirk took over on his face, he had an idea of how to deal with The Baby.

* * *

**_BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG_**

Royce closed his eyes with a sigh, when was she going to give up?

**_BANG, BANG, BANG_**

He tried keeping control of himself…

**_BANG, BANG_**

"Will you knock it off?!" he snapped, his pale blue eyes flashing open and glaring out at the little girl in the cell next to him, she blankly started at him standing close to the door of her cell before banging onto it again with the metal thing she held in her hand, he growled shifting onto his good side and curling up against his destroyed car trying his best to ignore her.

Alyssa glared at the glass in front of her as if simply giving it dirty looks would remove it out of her way, giving a frustrated groan she kicked it and immediately regretting it as pain shot up her leg, she gave a small cry and dropped down into the water and gripped her leg tightly, it really hurt. She decided to give up on trying getting out and leaned back against her case so that she was lying propped up in the water with only her face breaking the water's surface.

Why was she here? Why were any of those other people in here? All she wanted was to go home to her big sister and mother, why did she have to stay here instead?

She turned her head and stared at the boy in the cell next to her, he seemed really nice perhaps they could be friends. Alyssa shivered slightly from the freezing cold water, why did it have to be so cold? It was like frozen water in winter.

"Hey little girl, you know what?" The Jackal called from down the hall, Alyssa turned her head and stared down towards the insane man who didn't say anything else and simply burst out laughing manically for no apparent reason whatsoever.

"Leave Ally alone you freak!" Billy yelled angrily hitting his plastic toy tomahawk against the glass of his cell, desperately wanting to bash The Jackal's caged head for annoying his friend.

"Why is that man so weird?" Alyssa asked him quietly; moving through the water to be closer to him Billy made a face and sat down against the glass beside her.

"He's stupid, that's why. Jean said he's got a poorly mind but I think he's just really dumb" the dead boy answered nodding towards the burnt woman across the corridor from them; Alyssa nodded her head before staring back at him.

"Does that hurt?" she asked pointing to the arrow protruding from his forehead, she knew that it wasn't supposed to be there and that it would hurt but with her slightly morbid mind from not understanding what had happened to her she didn't realise exactly what was wrong with him.

"Kind of…" Billy replied turning his eyes away from her, hearing The Jackal screaming furiously he looked down the corridor to see Cyrus coming back again and stop next to his cell as he stared at Ally.

"How many of you would be willing to help me with a little experiment?" Cyrus called out addressing all of the ghosts who burst out in a rage of screams and yells at the very thought of doing anything for the person who had trapped all of them.

"We're not doing anything for you!" Jean yelled angrily, choosing to voice her opinion rather than to scream like some insane wild animal as most of the others had. She felt her anger dissolve as he turned and smirked at her coldly.

"Not even for your freedom?" he asked casually, they all fell silent, obviously rethinking their choices "Yes you see if my plan works, I'll set all of you free, you can go back to haunt you death places for a long as you please, all you have to do is make her suffer" he explained pointing into Alyssa's cell, instantly an 'oh fuck' expression fell over Billy's face while the little girl simply looked terrified.

"Um, if you guys ignore the old man I'll love you forever…" Alyssa whimpered looking around hopefully but fear appeared on her face against seeing how Royce was smirking evilly at her and hearing The Jackal burst out laughing again.

"Well, I'll let you think about it" Cyrus said before turning and walking back out the way he had come.

"Let's beat the shit outta her" Royce called out smashing his bat into the glass wall that separated him from Aylssa trying to get at her.

"If you hurt Ally I'll hurt you ten times more!" Billy yelled pressing himself up against the of his cell ready to defend his friend with everything he had, he knew that he had to protect her, she was very precious to him. A feeling of hysteria consumed both children as the doors of the cells opened with a whoosh, the water in Alyssa's spilling out and soon faded away.

The Jackal was the first the grasp the idea of freedom and charged out of his now open cell laughing insanely, Billy darted out around the glass and grabbed a hold of Alyssa's wet hand.

"Run!" he screeched dragging her behind him as he ran back out into the main corridor and away from the others as most of the ghosts rushed out of the cells after them.

* * *

**_Cybil-kitty- _**Yep there's another chapter, and sorry for leaving it on a cliff hanger (I'm evil) so how was it? Hopefully not bad, so please review so I can keep writing, and a big BIG thanks to my reviewers (I love you people!) **_  
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	4. Together

Turning another corner Billy peered down the corridor a head, making sure that no one was waiting down there, once he was sure it was safe he cautiously moved forward and gripping Ally's hand tightly in his own. He tried to think of what the heroes in his favourite cow boy movies would do at a time like this, they would save the girl they loved and beat up the bad guys, but how could he do that? All the other ghosts were so much bigger than him not to mention a lot stronger too, but he still had to protect Ally. That was an interesting idea actually, maybe Ally liked cowboys too… they could play cowboys and Indians together! … Well cowgirls in her case.

Looking down at her he noticed he was actually holding her hand, he hadn't really noticed before since they were both so scared, and even though this wasn't the time or place to think about it. It was kind of nice, which he didn't really understand, when he was alive he didn't like girls, they were full of cooties, but Ally was different from other girls, she was special though it could have been just because he hadn't been able to interact with any other children since his death.

"This place is too big… " Alyssa wailed, her head falling forward and landing on his shoulder causing him to shiver slightly feeling water from her soaking his clothing, suddenly a thought hit him, he looked back over his shoulder and saw the puddles of water along the corridor, oh no, she was leaving a trail behind that the others could follow.

"You have to stop doing that!" he told her worryingly pointing back at all the water she had left, she looked slightly embarrassed by it as if she had gone along urinating rather than simple fresh cold water dripping from her body and she shook her head, which only caused more water droplets to fall from her short hair.

"No I can't help it" she said quietly but wishing that she could, she hated the water so much, why wouldn't it ever stop?

"C'mon we have to keep going" Billy said taking her hand in his again and continued leading her around as if he let go she would instantly be harmed, Alyssa looked down at their hands feeling like she was blushing but nothing changed on her pale blue face, she had never held a boy's hand before, it was kind of nice, and even though she didn't even know his name yet she really liked him, he was the only one in this strange place who was trying to help her and was even willing to protect her from all those big scary grown ups. She didn't know why they were after her but she knew that it wouldn't be at all good if they found her, this boy seemed to know at least something about this place which was more than her so she decided it was best to stay with him.

* * *

The Jackal wandered through the corridor of the large basement, looking for the children. Finally he could be rewarded for hurting people! He couldn't wait to make that little brat suffer, and if The First Born Son insisted on getting in the way, then he would be hurt as well.

He blankly stared over his shoulder at The Juggernaut who he had teamed up with- apparently. More like the bullet hole riddled ghost had just started following him around during their search, not that Jackal cared though he could make himself useful by getting rid of the boy when they found the children.

After a while of blankly wandering around they came across something extremely helpful, puddles of water trailing up the corridor, how interesting, that little girl generated water from her body, it had to be her, that or The Great Child had made a very big mess.

As the pair of them followed the trail, The Jackal pondered about the oncoming fun, surely they would run and would need to be chased but it wouldn't work, foolish rabbits. He really didn't have any interest in The Son, except possibly giving the snot nosed brat a good beating like he deserved, but he was far more interested in The Baby, she was a girl, granted she was a child who hadn't lived to see puberty, but she was still was a girl! And unlike The Angry Princess she couldn't defend herself and she was tiny- but so was The Dire Mother but that dwarf had her bastard of a son to protect her, The Baby only had The Son and the only thing that stupid child could do was play with dangerous weapons and whine like a bitch.

Turning another corner in the seemly never ending maze of glass walls he saw the pair of brats up ahead, he held back a harsh laugh when the twin twits looked behind them and noticed him and The Juggernaut, the look on their faces was priceless.

A furious scowl appeared on Billy's face and he roughly pushed Alyssa behind him, holding his small arms out wide in an effort to protect her "Leave Ally alone! She's my best friend and I'm not letting you hurt her!" he yelled trying to glare down the competition, but obviously two children who were both under the age of eleven years old would have no chance against two fully grown men, especially as one was a tall giant and the other a insane maniac.

The Juggernaut charged at the pair madly and wasted no time grabbing Billy and throwing him aside hard against a glass wall and going for Alyssa, who actually proved to be a speedy little thing, ducking under between his legs and scurrying off, right in the direction of The Jackal.

When she realised that if she continued running the way she was she would end up being attacked by a freakish animal thing that looked like the love child of a crazed ape and a Tasmania Devil, with a metal box on its head, she spun around screeching loudly and went back to way she came, towards The Juggernaut and the now unconscious Billy lying on the floor to the side, with blood slowly seeping out of the arrow wound in his head and forming a small puddle beside him.

"You hurt him!" she exclaimed, crouching down beside him and grabbing him around the torso, attempting to drag him along the corridor.

"Auuuuuuu he's too heavy!" Alyssa whined, giving up on dragging Billy to safety after only managing moving a few inches, she looked up at the two men advancing on her and whimpered, her grip on Billy's shoulders tightening.

The Jackal grinned at her, he had noticed the blood between her legs, she had been raped before her death and most likely by her murderer, so if he was meant to make her suffer, surely the best way was to make her relive her rape, oh that sounded like so much fun. He had never had a child before but had thought about it a few times, this would be an interesting new experience for him.

The Juggernaut had apparently had the same idea as The Jackal, approaching the little girl who wasn't attempting to escape for some reason, possibly because she was either too stupid, too scared or just didn't want to leave the out for the count Billy alone with the two of them, simply sitting there looking absolutely terrified and clinging onto the boy's limp body. The Jackal grabbed her roughly and tore her away from Billy and taking a twisted pleasure at her horrified screams.

He kneeled on the ground while holding her screaming and kicking form against his body tightly, forcing her onto the floor and pulled up her dress as she began to cry pitifully, quite interestingly she wasn't wearing underwear, the little slut! It was a good thing she had been killed when she was young as she would have only grown to be some disgusting whore like his mother had been.

"Let me go!" Alyssa screamed kicking against him and tears pouring along with the water running down her face as she cried miserably, desperately to get out of his vice like grip. As she became more and more upset and frightened she felt her freezing body warming up, what was going on? Why did this all seem so familiar?

Her head began to hurt and burn making her scream out in pair, her hands shot up from where she had been trying to scratch the man holding her and grabbed that sides of her head, the pain was so bad that she forgot about The Jackal momentarily, she screamed again as every part of her body burned with pain and her eyes felt as if they melting right out of their sockets.

The Jackal grinned and threw the little girl flat onto her back, grabbing her legs he glanced briefly back at her face and saw the look of complete agony, he smirked he hadn't even done anything yet and she was already screaming in pain, turning he eyes back down her stared at her small body, seeing clearing where the blood between her legs had come from.

Pain exploded in his left shoulder making him yell out in pain and surprise, he dropped Alyssa's legs and looked behind him to see The Angry Princess there with her knife deep within his shoulder and blood seeping from the wound and staining his straight jacket. She roughly tore the blade out of his body and forced him backwards away from the girl lying on the floor.

The Jackal smirked at the sliced ghost in front of him, she was out numbered and he looked over his shoulder to where The Juggernaut had been… he had disappeared leaving The Jackal on his own against a strong ghost.

"Hello my lovely" he cooed charmingly at her his smile showing off his sharp teeth The Princess held her knife up and glared back at him, he couldn't help but let his eyes wander down to her perfect breasts, the were so nice...

She noticed his leering and growled at him moving closer to him with her knife held securely in her hand; she looked at the unconscious Billy, he had probably reached his limit in battle with the other ghosts and now needed to regenerate, then to The Baby who was lying huddled up and the ground and muttering something inaudible and shaking heavily, water pouring over the floor and creating a large pool around her.

The Jackal looked blankly around him as if he wasn't at all interested in the current events before glancing back at The Princess, he couldn't be bothered to fight her she was no fun, and he was more concerned about the fact that The Baby's eyes were glowing a bright purple colour… Wait what?!

He looked back at her eyes but they were the dim hazel colour they had been before, how strange… he turned his attention back to The Princess who was approaching him threateningly, he decided that this was now boring and flickered out of sight to find something more entertaining… perhaps The Bound Woman would prove to be more interesting….

The Angry Princess looked back down at the little girl, she looked like she was in agonising pain with her body shaking and the water around her had frozen becoming ice.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly kneeling down beside her, reaching out the hand that wasn't holding her knife and gently tapped her on the back, feeling that she was frozen, even though Dana herself was cold as she was no longer alive it was nothing compared to this poor little thing here.

Alyssa slowly uncurled herself from her huddled position and sat up her limbs cracking loudly from being so frozen and small chunks of ice falling from her body. She stared at The Princess silently, not sure whether to cry, scream or giggle at the fact that the older girl was completely naked, but she knew if anything it was going to be the first as her throat felt tight, the boy wasn't moving and this big girl looked really scary!

Dana sensed her fear and backed off a bit so she wasn't in touching distance of The Baby, or whatever her name was, she couldn't remember, she glanced back at the little girl, she was still shaking but the ice was slowly melting and turning back into water but she still looked very frightened probably still not sure whether she was going to be attacked again. Dana didn't want to hurt this poor little girl for basically two reasons, one, why should she do anything Cyrus told her to do? And second, how was hurting such a harmless little ghost going to accomplish anything at all?

She stared at Billy, wondering about what to do with him, if the pair of them had been running around the house like this they both must be extremely tired as it was obvious with the little boy on the floor.

* * *

Jean walked up the stairs out of the basement when it became apparent that the children were not down there anymore, she worried about them, they were both so small and the other ghosts were so strong, she was merely thankful that Billy had put himself in charge of protecting Alyssa when she couldn't reach her as the ghosts had made a mad dash towards her.

As she wandered through the ground floor of the glass house she spotted Royce viciously attacking the closed glass front door that came in between him and his freedom, she shook her head and sighed, he was so determined even though there was no way he could possibly break through that strange glass.

"Royce, please stop you know that it won't break, you'll only hurt yourself" she said calmly walking up beside him and saw that his wounds were bleeding from all of the energy he had used up trying to break out. He muttered to himself before slumping forwards and leaned his forehead against the glass angrily.

"I'm so close" Royce growled, it wasn't fair! He was out of that cursed cell in the basement; he could even see the outside world! That forest out there looked so inviting…

"Have you seen Alyssa?" Jean asked when he didn't reply she gently reached out and placed her hand on his good shoulder which he shook off quickly and shifted away from her touch.

"What?" he mumbled without turning to look at her and instead simply to gaze solemnly out at what should be his freedom.

"The Lonely Baby Royce, where is she?" she asked trying again while trying not to panic, maybe he didn't want to answer her question because he had already found her and hurt her.

"Oh that stupid brat, I dunno, I looked for her to give her a good beating" he explained lifting his baseball bat in his hand for emphasis before continuing "But I couldn't find her, though I think she's still hanging around with Arrow Head since I haven't seen him either"

"Alright thank you" she sighed "Royce if you do find them, promise me that you'll leave them alone, they're only children" she begged, he let out another mumble and his shoulders rose and the fell in a shrug. Jean smiled, he was a nice person when he wanted to be, though maybe the reason he didn't feel like going after the children was because the pain from his wounds had gotten to him and warn him out, either way he wasn't angry anymore and wouldn't hurt Billy and Alyssa.

She continued on her search and left Royce to morn the fact that tonight wouldn't be the night he would be able to escape the glass house, after a short while she sensed other ghosts, intrigued she followed her senses coming into one of the bedroom, and she was relived and at the same time bewildered by what she found.

Dana sitting quietly on the large bed and staring at her own reflection in the mirror on the dresser with both Billy and Alyssa curled up on the bed peacefully sleeping, had she been sitting with them protectively this whole time?

Jean moved further into the room and peered over at the sleeping children, they were so cute. Lying on top of the covers snuggled up together, Billy even had his thumb stuck in his mouth and was slowly sucking at it the same way a baby would.

"They were tired after being chased around by The Jackal" Dana said quietly taking her eyes off the mirror and shifting on the bed to face the older woman, Jean's face fell slightly when she mentioned The Jackal but softened again as she reached out and gently stroked Alyssa's soaked hair and looked at the way Billy's arm was draped over her, they were so adorable together. As she turned away from the sleeping children to talk to Dana she didn't noticed that Alyssa's eyes were glowing a strange colour underneath her eyelids.

* * *

_**Cybil kitty**_- Aw, such a cute chapter. I love cute things, but then again I do have a rather strange definition of the word cute as my older brother pointed out when I started saying that the mutants in The Hills Have Eyes are cute, but oh well.

Anyway I feel like a bit of pointless rambling so here's so information about Alyssa's base character Chie. Chie was actually six years old but the age was boosted a year up for this story, also as a ghost Chie was also trapped in a house (Or rather a temple) full of ghosts, though she never left the room she was murdered in, and her eyes were completely violet, and she had the power to easily kill people, which she only did when she was five years old when a group of her family members were going to use her in a sacrificial ceremony. Chie also had the mental state of a four year old, and spoke in the 3rd person

So if she wanted something it would be 'Chie wants this/ that' instead of 'I want this/that'

The biggest change between the two characters is that Alyssa doesn't have Chie's speech pattern.

Also one last pointless fact, in the second story I used Chie in (Where she was alive) her favourite food was toast and she found a talking toaster that she carried around and talked to as a friend, and she used the toaster as a weapon to beat a nurse almost to death.

So anyway, if you're still reading and not bored, please review, and many thanks to my good reviewers, you really help me write


	5. Thoughts

Billy awoke a strange coldness, it was actually kind of horrible to feel and it wasn't just a coldness the feeling had a sense of sorrow to it, it was a like a frozen misery sort of feeling. Forcing his eyes open he realised that the coldness was coming from the girl who was cuddled up against him.

When he was close enough he could sometimes sense the other ghost's death emotions, it was something that only happened rarely though as ghosts normally didn't want to show their feelings but he could feel Alyssa's, the things that she felt at the time of her death were sorrow, fear, and a terrible coldness along with a feeling of being trapped, it was somewhat similar to Royce's feeling of entrapment from when he was trapped in his car as it flipped before bursting into flames. Billy had a disturbing idea, was she trapped in the case and thrown into water while she was still alive? It would explain the feelings of being trapped and fear she would have felt as the case she was in sank down into water, it was a horrible, though he was somewhat happy about it, if she hadn't been murdered then they wouldn't be friends.

He sat up and rubbed his eyes before peering around at his surroundings, this wasn't the corridor where he last remembered being, he glanced at Jean and Dana who were both standing over by the door to the room apparently talking about something.

"Oh good, you're awake" Jean said as she smiled kindly towards him, he stared at her and Dana, placing a hand protectively on Alyssa's shoulder as if to say 'this is mine, stay away'

"Don't hurt her, she's my friend" Billy said quietly almost as if he was gently pleading them not to harm Alyssa, she was the first child he had met since that stupid neighbour boy Joe had shot the arrow through the back of his skull, and his wasn't about to let the others get their hands on her. After all he had already decided. She was going to be his best friend forever.

Jean gave him a small caring smile and a nod, but Billy's look of extremely protective determinedness didn't fade. Dana's head titled to the side as she looked at the pair of children ghosts, she recognised that look from during her life time, her abusive boyfriends had always given that controlling possessive look whenever another guy had even smiled at her. She also knew that during his short lifetime Billy had been a very spoiled child and had often gotten what he wanted, and now he wanted Alyssa, it would be hard to stop him when he wanted something, or even someone.

She gently twirled a lock of her damp dark brown hair around her fingers; this was going to get interesting, very interesting.

Billy stared at them for a moment, still wondering if he could really trust them. Well he knew that both Jean and Dana were nice people, hell they were more than nice, they were his only real friends in the glass house and if they were really going to hurt Ally, his Ally, then they would have done it when he was asleep, right?

He watched as Jean gently sat on the edge of the bed, knowing to give him room but still being close at the same time, and he watched as Dana peered around the room and then giving one last fascinated look towards him and the little girl lying next to him before flickering out of sight.

He glanced down to Alyssa, as he watched her he briefly wondered what she was like when she was alive, was she nice? If she had been she would be the second person who was nice during their life in this place, the first being Jean, or course. He hadn't been a nice child, he had tantrums, he fought with the other children, and he never did the choirs for his mother, but Ally seemed so… cute and sweet that she had to have been nice. Even though he didn't know anything about her, she just seemed very innocent, clearly an innocent victim of everything, one of the deaths that happened wrongly and left everyone wondering why it had to happen to that nice person.

He looked closer at her and realised that the short light blonde hair at the back of her head was speckled with blood, he stared at her head, It was a splatter of blood and looking closer he noticed a small gash in the back of her head and he realised, she must have been hit on the back of her head, probably with just enough strength to knock her unconscious but not kill her.

He felt anger growing inside of him; someone had knocked her out, hurt her and then thrown her into a river? Why would someone hurt such as nice person like Ally?

"Jean, did someone kill Ally, like Susan's boyfriend killed her? Cause they were angry with her?" Billy asked, looking up to stare at the burnt woman sitting on the bed, Jean almost jumped when Billy's voice broke pull her from her thoughts and back to reality, she thought for a moment as she tried to work out how to explain these horrible matters to a child, a dead child who was becoming more and more used to these tragedies everyday that he stayed here perhaps, but still a child.

"I think that the sort of person who would have killed Alyssa would've been a very sick person that just picked her because they thought she looked nice, not because they didn't like her or was angry with her" she tried to explain, she wanted to explain this sort or thing to him, but then she would have to tell him about rape and sex, and that was something that she just couldn't bring herself to do, his childish innocence was already too messed up.

"Ally does look nice, that's why she's my friend" Billy said quietly, not fully understanding what she had meant.

"Hey, do you think she's been dead long?" Billy asked as another question entered his mind, Jean smiled, he was so cute.

"I don't know, why not ask her?" she replied, before trying to work it out herself, she looked at the cloths the little girl wore; the cloths were always a good way to tell. Alyssa's cloth were cute and solely designed for children, that narrowed down the time to sometime from the early sixties to modern day, children before that time wore cloths that were exactly like what their parents wore so there was no way that she was over fifty years old.

Billy nodded and once again turned his gaze down to look at his friend, she was sleeping for a long time, it was sort of annoying actually, and he wanted to play! Not sleep or wait for her to wake up. He reached out his hand and placed it on her shoulder; he was becoming more used to the frozen feeling of her body as he gently shook her, trying to wake her.

"Get up!" he whined, shaking her more firmly as he grew more agitated. A smile appeared on his dead ghostly face when Alyssa's dim, lifeless hazel eyes opened and she stared tiredly up at him.

"What?" she mumbled out in a yawn, he grinned down at her, this would be so great, they were out of those stupid cubes and had a big house to play in, and none of the others were going to ruin it.

_**Cybil-kitty**_- sorry that this was shorter than what I normally write, but I was sort of lost for ideas on this part, but next it will be fun! What's better than two little ghosts playing around in a big glass house full of miserable adults? Nothing! That's what!... well maybe making Royce take him cloths off… opps… bad thoughts…. Anyway sorry there wasn't any Royce in this chapter… _(This is a story mainly about Billy, why the hell do I whine when I don't get Royce in?)_ Anyways reviews would be very much appreciated and thanks for reading!


	6. Burning

Lucy Carter sat alone in the kitchen of her home, her bright hazel eyes trained on the clock that hung from the wall. It had been almost a whole two hours since her mother had gone to the local police station after being called about something to do with Ally, but this was different from all the other times, she knew, it never took this long for her mother to either return home or at least call her with new information.

She was dead, that must be it and the police had called to tell them that they had found her baby sister's rotten remains, the very thought made her feel sick to her stomach the idea of Ally's body being nothing but a pile of bones by now made her want to throw up as she imaged the empty sockets where her sister's pretty hazel eyes, that matched her own, had once been but had rotten into nothingness over time.

Lucy clapped her hands over her face as fresh tears spilled from her eyes, it had been six years and yet the guilt and sadness hadn't gone away, it would never go, she knew, this was her punishment for what she did to her sister.

The hot painful tears continued to trail down her face as she recalled those last few days with Alyssa, if she could have any wish, out of the many, it would certainly be to go back to those last days and be there for her sister, even if she couldn't prevent her death, simply being there for her would make all the difference in the world to her right now. She yanked at her messy dark blonde hair that had been pulled up into a scruffy bunch as she remembered her stupid actions on those gods forsaken last days, why hadn't she believed Alyssa when she begged for help?! Sure, her little sister had always had quite a powerful imagination but she wouldn't have lied about someone following her! So why didn't she believe her when she told her? When she asked for help?

She was certain that Alyssa was dead, if not then what else could have happened to her? Strange sick people don't stalk innocent children, kidnap them and then simply let them walk away afterwards. Although her mother seemed to carry the demented belief that Alyssa was still alive and out there somewhere.

The front door opening quickly pulled her from her own self loathing and despairing thoughts as her mother quietly entered the house and shuffled into the kitchen, she looked about ten years older and completely heart broken.

"She's dead?" Lucy stated, as more of a fact than a question as she stare at her aged mother through her tear stained face and her hair that fell into her eyes, her mother shook her head and sat down beside her daughter at the small table, trying to give a somewhat believable smile.

"No, the police just aren't going to look for her anymore, but that doesn't mean we're going to give up hope" she announced, seemingly trying to boost her own confidence than anything else. Lucy simply continued to stare tragically broken at her, how could she still believe that Alyssa was still alive…?

"Mom…" Lucy muttered, but she couldn't bring herself to say what was on her mind and so she turned her eyes to look down at the hard wood of the table instead, as her hands clutched tightly against the fabric of her knee length skirt.

"Never mind" her mother began with a perhaps real smile on her face "We don't need those silly people to help us, we'll find her by ourselves, isn't that right, honey?" she asked grinning up at her eldest daughter and Lucy swallowed the painfully restricting lump that had formed in her throat "It's odd though, I keep imagining that when we find her she'll still be a little girl, how silly is that?" she chuckled slightly conversationally.

'It's silly for you to think she's alive' Lucy thought dimly and wished that she had the strength to say it out loud, and stop her mother from all this hopeless wishing.

"I wonder what she's like now; she'll be thirteen by now, practically a young lady" her mother continued with her deluded broodings. The sickening guilt built in her stomach until Lucy was sure she was going to throw up.

"I'm going to bed, I don't feel good" she uttered quickly as she stood, passing by her mother and ignoring as she called after her, asking what was wrong and if she wanted medicine. Lucy practically run through the small hallway and up the flight of stairs to the second floor, the nauseating feeling flared up just before she reached the bathroom and she clamped one hand over her mouth and the other on her stomach. She heaved dryly and was thankful that she had skipped lunch that day so there wasn't anything to bring up, feeling weak she slumped down against the bathroom door and cried into her hands.

How many times had she cried now? After all the times she cried it didn't seem like she would have anymore tears to shed, but she simply never seemed to stop, she cried every night when it was silent in the house and even the very thought of Ally sent a wave of pain throughout her being. She shakily stood up and slowly trudged forward along to her room but stopped, suddenly turning around and staring in another direction, towards Ally's room. She slowly walked in, pushing the white painted door open and shuffled inside. She wasn't sure what she was expecting to find, but she always seemed to believe somewhere in the back of her mind that when she walked into this room she would see Ally here, lying on the floor with her colouring books and crayons scattered around her, then she would jump up and embrace her older sister, like she always did.

Lucy's heart dropped a little more seeing that the room was empty, the things were there, everything from the old colouring books to Ally's favourite cuddly toy, a black cat that she had named Gobbolino, Lucy remembered how much her little sister loved the story of Gobbolino, all of the possessions were there but it was still so empty because Ally wasn't there. On the way to the bed in the corner Lucy glanced at the pile of unopened gifts sitting by the window, Christmas presents from that year Ally had disappeared. Her sister had disappeared on 13th December 2003, twelve days before the worst Christmas of her life.

Lucy gently lay down on the pale pink covers of the bed and pressed her face into the white pillows, breathing in deeply, trying to find the sent of her sister. Sadness swept over her once again as she only smelled herself on the fabric, the comforting smell from Ally had faded a long time ago. She hugged the plush cat toy tightly to her chest as she cried silently against the pillows, crying for the sister she would never see again and would never be able to say goodbye or apologise to.

* * *

'Cold… I'm so cold… it hurts… help… mommy, help! It's cold! The case! I'm in the case help!' Alyssa screamed inside her mind as the agonising freezing pain raged through her icy body, she rolled over on whatever she was lying on but the movement didn't help the way she wanted it to, the pain was still as bad as ever, sleep did nothing to diminish the cold. She didn't understand though, when she used to sleep, a long time ago, she always woke up feeling warm and comfortable, it was never like this before. She felt something shaking her by the shoulder as voices buzzed nearby, it sounded like two people and she vaguely recognised one of them.

"Get up!" one the voices whined, it sounded like the boy from before, but she wasn't sure. The thing shook her again and harder, she slowly opened her hazel coloured eyes and stared tiredly at the boy who was sitting beside her, smiling happily at her.

"What?" she mumbled, her small body giving a shiver and sat up slowly, wincing in pain at the soreness between her legs.

"You've been sleeping for ages!" Billy whined, over dramatically and Jean simply smiled with a slight roll of her eyes behind him. "It's time to wake up!" he continued joyfully, bouncing lightly up and down on the bed. Alyssa peered around again and sat up suddenly, her hazel eyes darting around as if she was frightened.

While glancing down at the bed they were sitting on, fear began to creep into her mind, what was happening? Why was she getting so upset? Beds, that's what it was, she realised, she gripped the sides of her head tightly as that same burning pain from before returned. Clamping her eyes and clenching her teeth together in pain. What was wrong with beds?! What was happening to her?

"Ally?! What's wrong?! Jean, do something!" she heard Billy wail loudly; when she opened her eyes again she noticed her wrist out of the corner of her eye, where she was clutching at her head. She brought her hand right in front of her face and stared with large eyes. The rope tied around her wrist, she could almost remember something but she couldn't simply think of what it was. Beds and ropes, why did those things seem so familiar together and scare her? A bolt of pain ripped through her skull again and a burning agony scolded inside her lower abdomen making her cry out shrilly, her little arms wrapped around her body.

As the pain slowly slipped away, she was able to calm down and open her eyes, and found that Billy was holding her, at some point through the pain he had grabbed onto her and wrapped his arms around her small body and was resting his head on her shoulder, whimpering quietly to himself while making sure that the arrow that had ended his life wasn't near Ally.

"Ally? Are you ok now?" he asked softly, one arm tightening around her torso and the other hand raising up to stroke her short blonde hair. He smiled slightly against her cold and wet neck, he liked holding her like this, he felt like he could protect her when she was here in his arms and that's what he had promised himself he would do, he would protect his Ally, he would even die again for her if he could because she was precious, she was his best friend.

He felt happiness blossom at the back of his mind when she returned his hug, her hands clutching at the back of his shirt causing water to soak through his clothing. She was hugging him back! She liked him too!

"Don't worry Ally, I'll make sure that those stupid old Jackal and Juggernaut won't hurt you" he said quietly, so that only she would be able to hear him. Alyssa smiled from merely the human contact, she had been alone for so long, all that time she had waited for her sister to come find her, nobody ever noticed she was there and when she tried to get the visitor's to the lake, like the fishermen, attention by shouting at them or pulling on them and hitting them they never realised she was there, but now people knew about her again, she wasn't alone anymore and this boy, Billy, said they were friends.

"And I'll be your best friend, and Jean here will be your new mommy" Billy carried on, smiling at her, Ally looked up and stared blankly at the burnt woman sitting beside them quietly, she supposed she did look like mommy and it would be nice to be taken care of like that again, but where was her real mommy? The one she had a long time ago? Nobody could ever replace her mommy, or her sister, where were they? And why hadn't they come and found her by now?

As she sat quietly being held, pressing her face into Billy's chest and her hands clutching at his shirt, she noticed something odd about him, when her mother and sister used to hold her like this before she could hear a sound, what was it again? A sort of thumping noise coming from their chests, yes that's what it was, there was always a thumping sound before, but she couldn't hear anything right now, come to think of it, she hadn't heard that sound for a long time, not since… well when she woke up and couldn't remember what happened, that was when she started living in the lake. What actually did happen to her? She couldn't remember anything, she just woke up like this, did something bad happen?

"Wanna play a game?" Billy's voice broke through her train of thought one again, she pulled back and stared at him blankly, play? He wanted to play now? Those scare grown ups wanted to hurt her! Shouldn't they be trying to think of a way out to get away from them?

"We could play cowboys and Indians if you want… uh, cowgirls" he stated grinning at her merrily.

"I don't think that's a good idea, it might not be safe to go out there right now" Jean spoke up for the first time in a while and nodded her charred head toward the door "We better just stay in here" she continued, she was rather scared, what if the Juggernaut or the Jackal came upstairs and found them now? She couldn't fight them away and Dana had gone elsewhere.

* * *

Royce growled angrily to himself as he rested his forehead against the cool glass of the front door to the house, this wasn't fair! He wanted to be out of this god forsaken hell whole of a house! He had finally be set free only to find that they were still trapped within the glass building. He wanted to go back home, to his road where he went flying down to his death all those years ago, not to stay here for the rest of eternity, stuck with psychopaths and annoying brats and Susan, he cringed at the thought of Susan, she never ceased in her attempts to seduce him, she thought she was the best thing in the universe and that she and him were meant to be, that 'fate' had brought them together. Bullshit, that girl was messed up, and she was also horrible to Dana, calling her ugly and stupid for killing herself, Royce didn't think Dana as either of those things.

He supposed that Susan had been a cheerleader during her lifetime, he had hung out with enough of them to know what they were like, when he was alive he had liked those types of girls, and remembered many times he had made bets with his friends to see how many he could get to come for a ride with him in his car to a well known secluded place, but now Susan just simply annoyed him, maybe it was because she was a cheerleader type and reminded him too much of his lost life time, or maybe it was just because Susan was an irritant bitch to start with.

Dana wouldn't have been a cheerleader he guessed, she was too shy for that, perhaps she was the quiet pretty girl sitting with only a small group of friends in the cafeteria, probably what he might have called the loser's table.

He stared out through the glass door for one last time, there was really no point standing here all night, losing himself in lifetime memories and depressing himself. He decided to go and find out where everyone else had gotten too, maybe he would find Dana.

He wandered around the ground floor of the house, it was at least a nice change from that dingy basement they were trapped in, he gently hit his bat against the glass walls as he walked, listening to the odd sounds of the impact.

He turned into a bedroom and stared at the blankly at the other ghosts in the room. Jean was sitting on the bed and staring at him with a frightened expression and the pair of brats were sitting on the floor, drawing on the glass of the floor with different coloured crayons.

As he stepped further into the room Dana suddenly flickered in sight, appearing right in front of him and coming in between him and Ally, holding up her blood covered knife at him threateningly with a vicious snarl on her sliced face.

"Don't hurt her Royce, please don't" Jean begged him quietly, hoping he would see things their way and wouldn't try to harm Alyssa. Royce glanced at the children sitting on the floor and back to Dana who was still threatening him and then shrugged with a bored expression on his face.

"She ain't worth it, no point beating a brat" he sighed, flickering over to the glass wall and casually leaning against it. "So what we gonna do now, huh?" he asked, looking to Dana and Jean.

"We could try to kill Cyrus" Dana said quietly, barely audible, as she stared blankly down at the floor as if she didn't like the attention the others gave her when listening. Royce nodded, completely agreeing but Jean looked a little startled at the idea.

"I think that wouldn't be good" she said, trying to be the voice of reason here, "If we killed him now then we won't know what he was doing"

"He could kill him now, then when he's like us we'll just beat him untill he tells us" Royce reasoned, tapping his baseball bat against the floor and imagining swinging it into Cyrus's face.

"Or we could keep him alive but only just, torturing him until he tells us" Dana spoke up, a small smile appearing on her face.

Royce smirked back at her "I like your way of thinkin' doll"

Jean was on the verge of panicking, they were talking about killing someone and enjoying the thought of it? How old were they again? she wasn't sure about Dana but Royce had still been in High school, she had children almost his age! And he was talking about killing?! Surely the fact that he had been dead for over fifty years didn't mean anything, he was still seventeen. She was just thankful that Billy and Alyssa hadn't been affected by death in this way, she shuddered at the thought of either one of them willingly harming someone.

"Look, the fact is that we can't leave this room or the others will find Alyssa, and besides even if you found Cyrus, which I doubt you would, he would simply play some chanted recordings and we would be stuck back in the cubes." She said, looking back and forth between the two young adults.

"Psh, leave the brats, we'll go find Cyrus" Royce argued, still wanting to go kill the one who had imprisoned them all here, but the parental glare from Jean quickly made him fall quiet.

Sometime later, no one knew for sure how long, they had given up on trying to think of ways to either kill Cyrus or escape and had calmed down into a bored state. The children had continued drawing on the floor, although the drawings didn't last long and ghostly crayon disappeared from the glass shortly after being scribbled on, Jean had taken up a new guard post by the door, watching for any of the other ghosts and Dana and Royce were sitting down on the floor in different corners of the room, blankly staring at nothing and apparently lost in their own thoughts.

A shrill yell sounded out from somewhere in the large glass house, it sounded a lot like Susan, causing Royce to chuckle evilly.

"Sounds like that damn girl got what she deserved" he sniggered, picturing Susan running away terrified from the Jackal, Juggernaut or the Hammer with a nasty smirk on his torn and ripped face. He noticed that every now and then Alyssa would look up from her drawings to stare at him, her dim and large hazel eyes staring holes into him, at first he didn't take much notice, she was just a stupid little kid, but then she started doing it more and more, her eyes going up and down along his bloodied body. It turned from occasional glances to full out staring, and he couldn't stand it anymore.

"Don't stare at me you freaking brat!" he screeched at her, slamming his wooden baseball bat against the glass floor loudly, Alyssa yelped and scrambled backwards to get away from him, the puddle of water trailing behind and gathering around her freezing over into ice.

"Don't scare Ally you dummy!" Billy yelled back at Royce, furious at him for terrifying his friend. All of them watched as the little girl quickly stood up from the floor, her breathing erratic and a crazed terrified look on her face, and her hands tightly gripping the sides of her head, apparently in pain.

"Ally?" Billy asked warily, gently approaching his friend and trying to calm her down. Her head wiped around with water flying from her hair, and she stared terrified at Billy and he was sure that he saw, if only for a moment, her hazel eyes flash a bright violet colour before returning to normal.

Before he or Jean could reach her, she had bolted, and flickered out of sight as she ran out of the door.

* * *

_**Cybil-Kitty-**_ Sorry for this taking so long, I wrote the first part of this chapter out a while ago, and stupidly deleted it in a moment of pure idiocy, so I apologise again, but I did enjoy writing the first part, another little peak into how Ally's family is doing without her. Also, I realise that this may seem a little Mary sue-ish, the way Billy suddenly liked her, but I want you to understand, he's not in love with her, he's simply a possessive child, I doubt Billy has a full understanding of love, he merely wants her to be his friend, and being a stubborn and spoilt child, he thinks he can have her. Though to me, Ally doesn't seem happy about it, thought really she's just incredibly freaked out, understandable really.

Review please, they help me a lot.


	7. Pain

"Now you've done it" Dana muttered after they had watched the little girl disappear out of sight, she was annoyed with him, why couldn't he just leave people alone?

"It ain't my fault; the brat was staring at me!" Royce whined, but heard how silly it sounded as the words came out of his mouth. "Why do you all care so much anyway? She's just a brat" he growled out, he didn't understand why they were all so protective of some little kid they had met barely five minutes ago.

"She was probably scared of you, you are pretty ugly Royce" Billy sneered at him nastily, Royce felt the angry blaze through him, he, like most of the others, was upset about the way he looked in death and Billy was touching a nerve here.

"The brat isn't scared of anyone of you! If she was gonna be scared of anyone it'll be Dana!" he yelled out before he could stop himself, Dana's bloodied face crumpled at his words, he thought she was hideous too.

"… Dana I didn't mean tha-" Royce started but Dana had glared at him and quickly flickered away before he could right his mistake.

Jean had stepped back a little here, not wanting to get in the way of either Royce or Dana, she would go see to Dana later and make Royce apologise properly, but for now she was still more worried about Alyssa, especially as she had just ran away and they didn't know where she had gone to. Jean feared for her safety, she was so small and alone right now and the others wouldn't be sympathetic to the fact that she was only a child, Jean shivered at the thought of the Jackal finding her again.

"Still don't see why the brat would only be scared of me, I didn't do anythin'" Royce muttered to himself, clearly agitated.

Jean tired to think of an answer to this question, as nasty as it had sounded when he said it, Royce was right, surely Alyssa would be scared more by Dana by any of them there when it came to appearances, although Dana had saved her and Billy and Royce was the one who had wanted to harm her earlier when Cyrus told them to.

"She must have a fear of men" the answer came out of her mouth as soon it came to mind and turned to face Royce "When she was looking you up and down, she wasn't looking at your wounded side, I think she was looking at your face and then at your crotch"

"The brats a freaking perv"

Billy was staring blankly at the two of them, he didn't understand what they were talking about, but he did know a few things, for some reason Ally was scared of men, and in the way and tone Royce had said the word 'perv' he had insulted his friend, though he didn't know what it meant.

"Don't say things about Ally" he mumbled and slumped down to sit crossed legged on the floor with an annoyed expression on his bloodied face. Annoyed because they were talking about his best friend and not involving him in the conversation, and they knew things about Ally that he didn't, he wanted to know everything about his new best friend and they were keeping secrets from him. He began to blank out the conversation as it wasn't about Ally anymore, just about boring old Cyrus, he was an ugly old fart and he was evil for trapping them all here, he even told the others to hurt Ally! He briefly wondered why Ally was so afraid of men, was it because a man killed her? But then again a boy had killed him and he wasn't scared of boys or other children, he wanted to play with other children like all those times he did when he was alive, so that theory didn't make sense at all. The only thing he knew was that now Ally was somewhere out there in the rest of the big glass house and she was alone, with all the others that wanted to hurt her, he knew that he had to go and save her, but how? The last time he had tried to protect her from The Jackal and The Juggernaut that hadn't worked out so well. Even so, there was no way that he was going to let the others get there hands on her, on his precious friend.

"You're wasting time talking about things that don't matter! We have to go find Ally before Jackal finds her again!" he wailed, standing up and glaring at the two adults in the room who were still blabbering on about completely unnecessary and time consuming, "Poor Ally is really small and if the Jackal gets her again, she can't stop him, he'll hurt her" her whimpered, his voice becoming quieter on the last part, and he grimaced as he imagined all the nasty things that would happen if one of the nastier spirits caught her.

* * *

Cyrus leaned back in his chair as he watched the computer screen, he had not too long ago set up cameras all over the house for just this kind of situation, the cameras had all been fitted out with lenses made with the same glass of the ghost viewing glasses and with technology that could hear them so he could watch everything they did, and so far it was most fascinating and kept him entertained while he camped out in the library, which had extra protection to make sure they wouldn't be able to get to him, and he had watched with a cruel smile earlier, as The Torso had discovered his location and furiously attacked the glass, desperate to reach him before he grew tired and crawled away to find something else to do.

"They think she's so innocent..." Kalina stated, as she watched from over his shoulder, before she turned back to the Arcanum, flicking through the pages with confused thoughts rattling in her mind "How did you know about The Lonely Baby? There's nothing in here about her" she asked, looking back up the man she loved for so deeply.

Cyrus swivelled his chair around and smirked at her "People have been fighting over this book for centuries and at one point someone tore this out" he said, taking an old piece of paper out of the draw in his desk and handed it to her "Perhaps they did it to stop the machine from working by leaving out the most powerful spirit" he added while her eyes quickly flew over the missing page, and then focused on the illustration of the ghost, of a small child figure with strangely drawn eyes, they seemed to be larger than possible and completely blank.

"The Lonely Baby is the vengeful spirit of a child who was forced to endure a terrible fate and had been possessed by hellish monsters answering to her lingering rage" Kalina read allowed as she translated the latin text, she gently touched her fingers to the drawing, she felt sorry for The Baby, it was a terrible fate that had met her, she glanced up at the group of photos and news paper clippings of the ghosts and looked at the missing poster that The Baby's family had sent out in hope of someone finding the girl, she had been such a pretty little girl, though it was most likely her sweet nature and enduring appearance that had attracted her killer, she had been so young, probably had a great future set out of her, she could have been very happy... but she wasn't real any more, they all were vengeful spirits, they were controlled by their hatred and despair, she most of all, she were merely the tool of the devil now and little Alyssa Carter didn't exist anymore, though it was strange that something had gone wrong for her to still remember things.

The First Born Son had clearly taken a liking to her, he was one of the few ghosts that was still rather himself, not so controlled by emotions of death, it was almost cute the way he liked her, and Cyrus couldn't help but smirk at this while he continued to watch the events unfurl on the screen, he thought that he had to protect her, he thought that she was sweet, helpless and innocent, if only he knew the truth, it they all knew perhaps they wouldn't be so quick to harm her, if they saw what she had done over the years... Cyrus had seen one of her victims, the memory of that ghost screaming, still in agony from her most horrible death, she wasn't a completely vengeful ghost, she had been too confused to understand what had happened, The Baby had done it so fast and hadn't given her time to realise the danger she had been in.

Fate had a strange sense of humour when it decided the most powerful spirit in all of this would be a small child.

* * *

Alyssa scampered through the corridors of the house, she had to get away from that older boy, he was going to hurt her, why did most of them want to hurt her? Just because that old guy told them to didn't mean they had to, people weren't supposed to hurt each other, adults never hurt children, it was one of the worst things to do. Why, why, why were they all so mad at her? She hadn't done anything bad, had she? Pain flared up frighteningly between her legs again at the thought of the angry boy or the scary men from before finding her, she could only stagger forward a few more paces before her knees gave out and she tumbled towards the floor, pressing her small hands against the near wall she managed to keep herself from completely going down and leaned against the cold glass. She clenched her teeth as tears poured from her eyes, dripping from her chin and mixing with growing puddle of water surrounding her as the pain burned through her again. All she wanted was to go home, to see her mother, sister and her friends, why couldn't she go home? Why hadn't they come and found her yet? Didn't they miss her as much as she missed them? Maybe they hated her, Lucy had been very angry with her when they were walking home, Lucy thought she was a liar... but what had she lied about? She couldn't even remember why her older sister was upset her, was that why she was here? Did she make up a really bad lie and she had to stay here because she had been so bad? If that was it she was already very sorry, she promised she would never do another bad thing ever again, she just wanted to go home.

She screamed out again as the pain hit harder than before, causing her to fall to where she lay on her said, struggling to breath, she couldn't get air in, her lungs couldn't expand any further they were full with water, her body locking down as she began to freeze over, the permanent covering of water turning into solid ice.

The Pilgrimess rounded the corner at that moment and stared at the sight of the little girl on the floor, before an cruel smile spread across her withered face. "There you are" she uttered, more to herself than to the child, and she began to move forward, intending to inflict pain. As she grew closer, the were a few cracks, as Alyssa moved her neck and jaw and as she grew closer she could hear her muttering quietly to herself.

"Stupid old ugly lady, stupid bat boy, stupid tall man, stupid, stupid crazy man" The Pilgrimess ignored her nonsense ramblings and continued to where she was just about in touching distance when in a sudden move, the girl's head shot up, her neck cracking more ice and her eyes glaring a vivid violet, "Stay away!" she screeched her small child voice double-layered and over lapping with a inhuman snarl, Isabella stepped back just a little in shock and watched in fear as the child fought to get up on her feet, the ice cracking and falling in chunks her body still covered in by a think sheet of ice but water pouring from her, the water began to spread further than the usual puddle surrounding her, it continued to cover the floor and floor along the corridor. The water flowed up to Isabella, already reaching her mid calf, just the feeling of the water made her cry out in pain, it was so cold, unlike anything she had felt before in life and death, so cold it seemed to burn at her skin. She looked up again to see Alyssa approaching her, her eyes were beyond words, shining such a colour with intense burning hatred. She tried to move further away from her, but found that the water around her was frozen rock hard and no amount of struggling could free her, and more water was still running from the girl, but she wasn't a girl, she wasn't anything close to human. Alyssa kept on coming closer and closer, with no doubt what she had planned, gurgling wails emitting from her mouth as water spluttered out.

"Stupid ugly old lady" the thing said, the thing that had changed her, the high child's voice being overpowered by the strange voice, her arms reaching out, ready to grab her.

"Don't touch me you ungodly monster!" Isabella shrilled and fought as hard as she could to escape, she couldn't even disappear, the hold on her was too strong. The little girl was so close now, and her her was just about to touch her when something happened, in the same moment as her eyes shined even brighter and and an eerie dark glow seemed to emerge around her as she went in for the attack something suddenly triggered some kind of reaction, Isabella's eyes were caught by a bright light, the silver charm bracelet around her left wrist along with the remains of old rope was glowing at a frightful rate, Alyssa screeched as the bracelet burned into her, black smoke resulting from the smouldering metal on her flesh, she wailed and thrashed about while clutching her head in agony, the ice all around her instantly melting away in a cloud of steam.

"Make it stop!" she screamed, looking up to The Pilmgrimess who saw her eyes return to their natural hazel, though practically glowing with deep hellish pain, her voice a shrill child's cry once again.

* * *

"That's it!" Cyrus exclaimed, leaping up from his chair with pure joy as he watched the screen, also startling the dozing Kalina, "That's what's wrong with her!" he carried on, a rare smile of real happiness gracing his features.

"What are you talking about?" Kalina asked tiredly, rubbing her eyes with her fists as she yawned loudly and stiffly stood from her seat to see why he was so happy. He nodded towards the screen where she looked, and a frown appeared on her face. "What's happening to her?" she asked confused and rather frightened at the sight of the screaming ghost.

"That bracelet! She was almost there, she had reverted back and was going to attack The Pilgrimess but the bracelet stopped her, that is what's causing this" he replied, the smile still apparent as he watched the child ghost being tortured "Look at these photos" he told his partner, quickly pulling out a collection of photos of Alyssa Carter from the desk and passing them to her "That bracelet isn't in any photo, and that looks like quality jewelery, no one in their right mind would give it to a small child who would ruin it"

"Where did you get these?" Kalina cut in, confused and with no idea where he was going with this.

"I have my sources" Cyrus returned briskly "Look at it" he commanded, and typed in an action to the computer, the camera stopping and zooming in on the girl's left wrist "All her clothing is water damaged, but the bracelet stills seems to be in mint condition, it should be rusted"

"She wasn't wearing it when she died...." Kalina concluded, summing up his hints, "But, how is that even possible?" she asked, turning to look at her lover "Earth bound spirits are stuck the way they died, they can't change themselves, change their clothing or heal their wounds..."

"You have just said it yourself, Kalina, they can't change themselves, so perhaps someone or something interfered" he stated, as he sat back down to watch the screen, a thoughtful expression taking over on his face.

* * *

The Torn Prince wandered through the corridors, searching for The Lonely Baby, Jean and Billy had gone one way and he had gone another, tired of Billy telling him off for scaring his friend, and Jean had just smiled at him and mentioned that he could make things up with Dana if he ran into her again. He hadn't meant to scare The Baby like that but he couldn't help it, she was upsetting him and putting him on the edge, and how was he supposed to know that she was scared of men and would freak out like that, though he guessed he heard something before about rape victims developing a fear of the attacker's gender, but she wasn't at all frightened of Billy, then again Billy hadn't lived to to see his balls drop. Why would anyone look at a kid like that? How sick did you have to be for you to think children were in anyway sexually attractive? Cheerleaders were sexy, not little bratty kids who couldn't even find their own genitals with a map. Dana was sexy... he shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts, this wasn't the time for that, he had to find The Baby to make Jean and Dana happy, but mostly to shut Billy up.

Even though he normally didn't like kids, being an only child, he remembered that one of his friends, Stuart, had a little sister that kind of had a thing for him, everything after school they would go around to his house to hand out she would greet him and blush a bright pink, her childish crush had been harmless enough, she was at the age where new crushes happened everyday and didn't mean much, even so, she was a pretty cool kid, more of a tom boy as a result of tailing her brother about all the time instead of playing tea parties with the other girls, always up for a good laugh, a frown made its way onto his ruined face, where was she? She had to be rather old by now, his parents were dead and all of his friends were either dead or old, they probably moved on instead of remaining trapped in death. He once again cleared his mind blank, refusing to let himself remember those painful things, he had to find The Baby and make up with Dana.

With new determination fresh in his mind he continued forward throughout the glass house. After a little more random searching he came across a familiar sight, the luggage case The Baby had first appeared in, it was simply laying in the corridor, soaking wet and water seeping out of it. Walking up to it, he noted that it was the kind with wheels and a pull up handle, and for a moment he thought of going for the easy option of simply taking it with him to Billy and Jean, without even bothering to check on her, though he would most likely only receive more scolding from the motherly ghost. He crouched down beside the case and gently tapped with the back of his hand, a small squeak came out but nothing else, he rolled his blue eyes with a sigh, did she really think he wouldn't find her in there? It was one of the most pathetic hiding places she could possibly find. He reached around and tugged the zipper open and exposed the frightened little girl, tightly packed in there, cradling her head in her arms.

"Hey kiddo" he said causally, placing his hand on her back and shaking her a little, trying to coax her out of her case, she pulled herself, if even possible, tighter, trying to make herself as small as possible.

"Go away" she whimpered miserably, visually shaking with fear. Royce leaned in and tucked his hands under her small frame, and with one heave, pulled her out and held onto her as she began to struggle and try to lash out at him, her little legs flailing as she tried to hurt him, with one arm around her waist her held her against his chest, as he sat there and hoped she would shut up and stop fighting him.

"I'm not gonna hurt you, stupid, I'm takin' you back to Billy" he told her in a harsh voice, willing himself to remain calm and not have an repeat of earlier, while doing his best to ignore the horrible coldness being emitted from her body and further irritating his wounds, her struggles weakened when he mentioned Billy, seeing that it was having an effect on her he carried on "An' I'm sorry for yelling at you, its just most people don't like to be stared at" he mumbled, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Put me down..." she said quietly Royce thought about it for a moment but then shrugged, if she ran away now it was't his fault, he had found her and apologized, so he pulled away and set her down on her feet before standing.

"If you wanna see Billy you better come with me" he told her, watching her a she gave him a long hard stare, probably trying to work him out, without another word he turned around and began heading back to where he knew Billy and Jean had gone to search for her, after a few steps he could hear the soft sound of her padding behind him and by the time they had reached the corner he felt a tug on the back of his jacket, glancing down he saw her small hand grasping onto his clothing, pretending to ignore that he had noticed this, he walked on with her right behind him.

**_Cybil-kitt_**_**y**_- yay, cute, SO SORRY for now updating for so long, major blockage in my brain... anywhos, thanks for all my kind reviewers out there! You really help me so much, and one person questioned why the Jackal would attack her and that he only raped prostitutes and all that, then why did he go for Kathy? He clearly attacks out of madness, there's not a lot of logic that can be applied to crazy people, so he may well go for a child, and people, sorry if I offend of freak people out with the fact that Alyssa was raped, it does happen, and its horrible and one of the most evil things a person can do to a child, but that doesn't stop it from existing. Carrying on, I got more Royce in here... yay, not a lot of Billy though, he shall return though! So as usual please review, they honestly make me want to write and I'll try for a faster update next time!


	8. Bad

Alyssa stared up at Royce's back as he lead her through the maze of glass corridors back to where he said Billy and Jean where looking for her, and a small smile appeared on her blue face, he said he was sorry for shouting at her, he said he was sorry for chasing her away, so maybe he was actuall nice instead of being nasty like he had seemed before, but then again he said that he wanted to hurt her, he had wanted to hit her with his wooden baseball bat. But he hadn't, he said he didn't want to hurt her, and he was being quite nice to her now, and that thought made her happy. She tilted her head to the side and glanced at his strange side, he was very messy and his clothing was torn in places, did he really like painting? She pondered, well he must with all that red paint down one side of his body, what else could it be. She liked painting, but liked drawing more, though she did a really good picture of Gobbolino with paint, and her mother had put it up on the kitchen fridge for everyone to see, thinking of that, she really wanted Gobbolino right now, he would be a big help in this scary place, although maybe it was better if he stayed at home where it was safe and no big scary men were trying to hurt her, no doubt they would hurt him too. Hopefully Lucy was taking good care of Gobbolino.

As she continued to follow him along, she wondered what he had done to get here, if her theory that you had to be bad to be in here was right, then he must be bad too, because a lot of the others here seemed to be bad, maybe not that nice lady who Billy said could be her new mommy, but it was still possible she had done something, and that older girl was running around naked! That was defiantly naughty and she was playing with knifes,another bad thing. Maybe the boy with the bat was here because he used lots of rude words, she remembered Lucy always got told off by their mother for saying words like he did, but then why wasn't Lucy here with her?

She wished her older sister was here to look after her, and then after she had made up for lying and was good again they could go home together and have Christmas, she remembered that she had got a really nice present for Lucy, they were a little tight on money so she had made her a teddy bear, with a lot of help from her next door neighbour Mrs Potter using some material the old lady had lurking around her house and the stuffing from an worn-out cushion she had been going to throw out, Mrs Potter always said she was such a good girl, would she be disappointed?

"Am I bad?" she asked quietly, trying to keep the threatening tears out of her voice, she didn't want to cry here, not with all these horrible people here who would probably laugh at her. Royce slowed his pace and glanced over his shoulder at her, he didn't know what to say, he could truly see why she would think that she was, he had asked himself many times what had he done to deserve being here, although it was true that he had done terrible things during his time, alive and dead, but she surely wasn't like the him, or most of the others, surely, she was like Jean, kind but simply unfortunate to be chosen by Cyrus.

"Have you ever killed anyone?" he asked, without giving so much as a flick of his eyes towards her.

Alyssa thought for a moment, no she hadn't ever killed anything, she had even saved a group of ants from some boys with a magnifying glass on a sunny day once. "No" she replied in a quiet voice, still somewhat uncomfortable taking to him.

"Have you ever hurt someone on purpose?" he asked, noticing the way her small hand clenched tighter on his jacket.

Again she pondered this question, she didn't normally like hurting people, but she remembered that she had wanted to hurt Lucy for something, it was when the were walking home after school, Lucy had called her a liar and done something else, but what was it? Why would she want to hurt her sister? "No, but I wanted to hurt my sister" she answered honestly, even though she couldn't remember most of the details.

"Look kiddo, everyone wants to hurt people when they get mad" he said, thinking of how much he liked seeing Susan being hurt, or her face when someone insulted her, Jean herself had an argument with the rich snob, telling her to stop being so selfish and self-absorbed and leave them, mainly Dana, alone and to stop her snide comments about them all. "But, ya didn't hurt her, that's the thing that counts and all that" he explained, wondering why he was having a deep conversation with a brat, he could just imagine the look on his old friends' faces if they saw this ... again, not the time to remissness, he hoped Jean and Dana had better be thankful for this.

Royce turned away from her and began walking again, the sooner he got back to Billy and Jean the sooner he could stop babysitting the kid, he was uncomfortable around her, not only was she an annoying child, but there was something about her, why else would Cyrus be so interested in her? She didn't seem like much, she wasn't strong like The Juggernaut, she wasn't frightening like himself or Dana, she didn't even seem to be trapped in lingering hatred from her death, she was just a brat. What was so special about her?

"Hello, Royce" an intruding voice spoke up, and Susan, The Bound Woman, flickered into sight a head of them, a coy smile on her pretty face.

"What do you want?" he questioned, the venom in his voice completely obvious, even to the naive child.

"Oh I just though this was an unique opportunity for us to spend some quality time together" she smiled at him charmingly, and took a step closer, her dark eyes widened when she noticed the little girl just behind him, clinging on his jacket and peering around his side at her with a worried expression.

"It's The Baby!" Susan exclaimed, stepping even closer to them "You found her! This is great, Cyrus will be pleased, what are you waiting for?" she asked confused, unsure of why he was just standing there and not making any attempt to harm her. Her face fell when Royce reached his arm back, pushing the small girl directly behind him and holding his base ball bat up threateningly towards her. "Royce? What are you doing?" Susan asked bewildered, and made to move closer "Cyrus said if we hurt her, he'll let us go, we'll do it together"

"Royce" Alyssa whimpered, her hands holding tightly onto his jacket in fear, he glanced over his shoulder and hushed her before returning Susan's smile with an glare.

"Susan, first of all, why the hell would I want to do anythin' with a whore like you? Secondly, you're gotta be an idiot to believe anythin' that lunatic says" he snarled at her, Susan's face faltered, and then for a moment she appeared angry, she was not use to being so openly rejected like that, she was Susan Legrow, the girl that no boy rejected, the girl no one refused, but then the smile appeared back on her face, though rather stretched and forced.

"Look Royce, I don't know what The Princess told you but she's obviously lying to you, Cyrus wouldn't lie like that, it doesn't make any sense, if we hurt the kid we can leave this place, and then we'll be together, isn't that what you want? Just you and me?" she tried her charming approach once again, although it didn't have the slightest effect on him. He raised his bat as she stepped closer, a hateful glare on his mutilated face, hateful for not getting the clear message that he didn't want her, for being stupid enough to believe anything Cyrus told them and for once again involving Dana and acting spitefully towards her.

"Can't ya get it through your thick skull of yours that I don't want anythin' to do with you? Who would want a selfish bitch like you?" he growled at her, the hate clear in his tone "An' as for the kid, Cyrus thinks there's somethin' special 'bout her, he's plannin' somethin' and I'm gonna find out what" he added as an after thought, glancing down at the frightened child who was pressing her face into his back, her arms locked around his waist tightly.

"How could you say that?" Susan wailed almost in tears from his harsh words, but instead her eyes filled with anger "I'll just take care of her myself then" she hissed, trying to dodge around him and reach the child he was defending, and although her hands were bound behind her back she still had her legs to lash out with, after all, how hard could it be to hurt such a small kid? Royce reacted quickly to her attack, just as Susan went to run into Alyssa he swung his bat, smashing it right into Susan's face. She screeched loudly, falling to the floor where she laid on her back, and really couldn't move much since she couldn't use her hands to push herself up with. He moved closer to her, his bat raised for another strike. Susan stared at him for a moment with fear but also hatred and hurt on her face, before finally surrendering and disappearing away.

Royce grinned to himself as he watched her give up "Man it felt good to use this bat again" he stated smugly, enjoying having something on the receiving end of his favourite bat, and then looked down at the little girl who was still holding onto him as tightly as she could. "Ya can let go now" he told her, the irritation returning a little, when she merely shook her head and continued her tight grip he reached down and pried his hands between them, forcefully removing her.

"Are we friends now?" Alyssa asked, a smile ready to appear on her face, he stopped the nasty girl hurting her, just like the naked girl did, and she was her friend, wasn't she?

Royce faltered a little, she reminded him a lot of Cathy, Stuart's sister, he and Cathy had been friends, she was such a good kid, she always helped him and his friends, never telling her parents what her older brother and he got up to, always covering for them and in return Stuart sometimes brought her out with them, she was already one of the gang.

"Yeah, whatever, just don't hug me again" he muttered as he walked along, feeling water chilling his back and around his waist with soaked clothes from where she had been clinging to him. He glanced down at her as she walked beside him. her hand reattached to his jacket, he sighed, with her around him like this he wouldn't be getting dry any time soon, it must be maddening to be eternally soaked with freezing water, thought that was her death, they all had their individual pain to endure, though she didn't seem to be like them, something was different about her, as he and the others were more bound by their feelings of despair and hatred in a way, although Jean always put a brave face on her pain, Jean was a fighter, though she hadn't been dead as long as they had. That raised an interesting question actually, how long had The Baby been dead? He figured that she could have died recently, she seemed rather dazed and confused about everything, on the other hand, it was realy trumatic to be captured, taken away from the place of your death and trapped inside a tiny cell along with a bunch of weirdos, and besides, this could just be how she always behaved, after all, she was called The Lonely Baby, she'd probably been alone for a long time, and now that she was around a lot of people suddenly she was probably scared shit-less.

"So" he began, glancing down at her, meeting her gaze as she looked up at him with her large eyes "How long have you... been like this?" he asked, he didn't want to use to word 'dead' because when they had first asked Billy, he had started crying, and it seemed that often people took some kind of offence to the question, well it was rather personal, he supposed, he certainly didn't like having to tell his story unless he felt he wanted to. She tilted her head to the side, as if she didn't understand what he was saying, so he tried a different approach, "How long have you been cold?" he asked, trying to use any other word other than 'dead'. She seemed to understand him this time, her eyes lowering to glance down at herself.

"A long time, I've been waiting for my sister" she replied, he frowned, was she waiting for her sister to die and join her? That would take some time, or her sister might already be dead, maybe she had moved on.

"Where is she?" he asked, not so sure why he was so interested, but if he was going to find out what Cyrus wanted with her then he was going to have to learn more about her, besides, Dana had sparked his curiosity, she seemed to believe along with Jean that there was something different about this little girl and they might just be right.

"I don't know... she said she wouldn't be gone for too long, she said she would see me at home... but I don't remember going home, I think she's looking for me right now, she'll probably come to take me home soon" the little girl trailed off in thought for a moment "I don't remember what happened" she explained, her eyes turned downwards and she looked like she was ready to cry. Royce simply stared at her blankly, she didn't remember? How could she forget what had happened? How could you be a vengeful ghost if you didn't remember your death?

"Ally!" a shrill voice cried, and Billy appeared and ran straight towards his friend, forcefully throwing himself at her and wrapping his arms tightly around her shoulders "Ally I was so worried! You ran away and I thought The Jackal or someone got you!" he wailed, on the verge of crying, and then glared at her heatedly "Don't do that again! It was horrible of you! Friends don't run away!" he shook her roughly by the shoulders in his anger, until she pushed him off and stuck her tongue out at him irritated.

"Billy be careful with her" Jean scolded him, as she walked up to them, tugging her IV cart along beside her, speaking as if she was a fragile china doll that had to be handled with extreme care, not wanting to frighten her again and trigger one of her apparently common panic attacks. She then turned to Royce "Thank you" she spoke quietly to him as the children continued their conversation, or rather, Billy chattering on as Alyssa stood there and listened to him, occasionally giving a sign that he had her attention with a mumble and a nod. "We found Dana, I calmed her down but you are still going to talk to her" she told him, with that powering mothering look of hers again.

* * *

Lucy glanced down at her little sister, as they marched through the thickening snow down the street, walking home after the last day of school before the Christmas holiday. She sighed to herself, rather irritated, her friends were having a party, nothing too big, just a gathering of friends, but still, she wanted to go, but instead she had to walk Ally home and all because their mother didn't think she was old enough to walk the couple of blocks by herself, it wasn't like it was a large city, just a small town where nothing ever happened, and besides, she had walked home by herself when she had been seven. To make matters worse their mother was always at the hospital visiting their grandfather straight after work, so she had to take care of Ally until their mother returned home later in the evening, and Ally had been making a brat of herself lately, becoming annoyingly more whiny and attention seeking. She thought of her friends, they were going to have fun, and without her, damn them. Her best friend Sarah was going away for Christmas tomorrow and this would have been their last day together for three weeks until she came back, knowing this made Lucy all the more annoyed, Ally had friends, older friends at that, one of them was fifteen! Why couldn't he walk her home? But no, her friends all had to be busy, didn't they? Damn them all.

She glanced down at her sister, who was clinging rather tightly to her arm, she had been acting very strange recently, but Lucy had been too busy to find out what, with all her project work for school, friends and looking after the seven year old in general, she seemed very nervous about being outside for some reason.

At that moment her phone began to ring, she pulled it out of the pocket of her jeans, looked at the caller ID and flipped it open "Hey Sarah" she sighed, desperately wishing she could go to that party.

"Hey, I was wondering-" she didn't even get a chance to finish what she was saying as Lucy cut in.

"I told you already, I can't come, remember?" she moaned, glancing down at her sister who was intently watching her.

"I know, but how about just coming over for an hour or something, I'm gonna miss you, please?" Sarah whined, using that tone that always persuaded Lucy before. She groaned again, and thought for a moment, they were basically only down the road from their street, Ally could easily walk by herself from here, and there were snacks she could get herself, so she wouldn't go hungry or anything, and it would only be for a little while, Ally could do that, and she even had Mrs Potter next door if she got lonely. "Ok but only for a bit, see you soon" she replied and hung up and then looked back at her sister.

"Lucy, what's going on?" the little girl asked curiously, though with a hint of worry in her voice.

"Look, I'm going to go see Sarah for a while, ok? You can walked home from here by yourself, I won't be long" she explained, reaching her hand into the pocket again, replacing the phone and taking out a bronze coloured key "Here's the key to the house, be good and don't answer to door if someone knocks, like mom told you, ok?"

Fear instantly fell over Ally's face "I don't want to go alone!" she wailed, clinging even more to her elder sister, not wanting to let go.

"Ally, its only for a little while, and you'll have Mrs Potter right next door, why not go bake cookies with her or something?" she offered, trying to make the child see sense, there was nothing dangerous about walking the short distance to the house. Tears quickly built up and ran from her large, bright eyes, her small hands holding all the tighter onto her sister.

"But Lucy! I'm scared!" she sobbed "The man will get me!" she cried, Lucy stared at her with concern on her face, which was then replaced with annoyance.

"Ally, look, I've had enough of this, you keep saying a strange man is following you but I haven't seen anything at all! No one has! None of your friends have and frankly we're all getting tired of this stupid game" she told her harshly, yanking her arm away from her sister and stepping back to glared at her.

"But there is! Lucy there is a man following me! You just don't see him! He's always hiding by the time you look!" Ally cried harder, she couldn't believe that her big sister wouldn't listen to her, wouldn't believe her.

"So, what? Is this man intentionally hiding when you point him out just to make you look crazy?" she asked bitterly, getting more angry by the minute, why couldn't she just drop this stupid thing? It was bad enough that their grandfather was ill and their mother was never there, but for her to make up this kind of lie, and just for attention, when it really happened all over the world to thousands of little girls, and she was just trying to make up stories, and for what? So they would feel sorry for her? So she could get more attention?

"No! Lucy! He really is-" she wailed but was instantly silenced when Lucy's hand came down sharply on the side of her face.

"You're being so selfish! Grandpa is sick and just because he and mom aren't around to play with you have to go making up lies to get people to pay attention to you? You aren't the only person in the world who matters you know! Do you think I want to babysit you, when all you do is want to play, and when nobody wants to you start whining and making up stupid and disgusting lies!" she yelled, practically screamed, her face turning a vivid red, she threw the key at her, it hit against her body and dropped into the snow, with that done she sharply turn on her heel and marched away from her, not once looking back at the heartbroken look on her sister's tear stained face.

"The nerve of that brat!" Lucy fumed as she continued up the street and turning the corner, not at all noticing the white van that was parked across the road, the driver sitting there and watching her, and then quietly driving down the road towards where she had left her little sister.

* * *

Lucy sat up fast, to find herself again in Ally's room, where she had fallen asleep on her bed, she began to sob again at the memory, the police had never been able to trace that white van, she remembered the broken and betrayed looked on her sister's face that day, she had said such horrible things to her, and she didn't even get the chance to say how sorry she was, if she hadn't gone to see Sarah... if she hadn't been so self centred then Ally would still be here with her, she cried more as that thought tortured her mind, it was her fault, her fault that Ally was gone, that her sister was dead.


	9. Sorrow

Jean was relieved that Alyssa was safe and no longer in danger, she felt the weight on her heart lift as she looked at the little girl, it would be alright now both Billy and his new friend were safe and now even Royce was one their side, she smiled at the thought. She knelt down next to the two children and called the little girl's name, when she turned from Billy Jean took a hold of her hands and gently tugged her towards her, holding her hands in her as she faced her, the way she would when her own children had been smaller and she wanted to talk to them.

"Alyssa, are you alright? Does anything hurt?" she asked worriedly, the little girl had gone out by herself where the others were probably hunting for her, not to mention The Jackal was still lurking around wanting to get his clawed hands on her...

Ally nodded with a frown on her face "Where, can you show me?" Jean asked, hoping that nothing bad happened to her, the child took one of her hands away and pointed between her bloodied legs "Oh, I know it hurts there, sweetheart, I mean do any new places hurt?" she tried again, doing her best to keep the look of disgust from her face at the thought of what had caused the pain there, and she held her caring tone and warm expression. Ally seemed to think for a moment and then nodded again.

"My head hurt so much earlier" she said quietly, shivering a little at the memory of that terrible pain that had torn through her small frame before.

Hearing this Billy imediatly cut in "Why does your head hurt Ally?" he questioned and pushed Jean out of the way so he could get closer to his friend "Did you fall down? Or does this still hurt a lot?" he continued, reaching his hand around to press it against the small gash at the back of her head that was the result of a vicious attack before she was killed. He eyed critically every minor injury on her body, looking for something that appeared new to show that she had been hurt while she had gone out in the house alone, while conducting his search of her being he noticed something that he hadn't seen before, a large familiar shaped black-ish bruise on her leg above her knee and carried on up under the hem of her dress, strangely curious he pushed up the clothing slightly, by mere centre-meters with his tomahawk, because he certainly didn't want to use his hands. The Bruise looked very much like a hand print, like someone, with noticeably large adult hands, had grabbed her by the leg with powerful force causing Billy's face to tighten with disbelief, why would anyone want to touch a girl there so close to her private place? Everyone knew that's where cooties came from! He stepped back and rubbed his tomahawk on the leg of his jeans to rub off her nasty cooties, as well as a trace of blood from his precious toy. He thought blankly for a moment, wondering what he liked more his toy or his friend, and he found himself siding at first with his tomahawk because unlike other people it didn't argue with him about when or what to play and it didn't need so much looking after, but then again he did get lonely by himself playing alone with his toys, it was always so much more fun with someone to play with.

He felt a buzz of anger shoot through him as he watched Ally leaning into Jean, who had moved over again and was kneeling beside the little girl, why didn't Ally want to hug him? He had given her hugs before so why was she not thinking of him for comfort now? Although Jean was going to be their knew mother, he still couldn't help but feel a little jealous.

"Jean, I gotta tell you somethin' real important" Royce said quietly, leaning down to Jean momentary as he stepped past them and nodded down the corridor "Gotta tell you alone" he added, Jean watched him curiously with a questioning look, as she tried to decipher what was bothering him by the expression on his face and the tone of his voice.

"What is Royce?" she asked worriedly as she followed him around a corner, he turned to face her with his baseball bat resting against his shoulder and he took in a long breath and seemed like he was trying to work out how to explain what he wanted to talk about.

"Back when I was bringin' the kid back we were kinda talkin', tryin' to find out stuff 'bout her you know and she told me that she doesn't remember what happened to her" Royce explained, Jean's fire damaged face contorted in confusion "She doesn't remember dying, she probably thinks she's still alive"

Jean opened her mouth and then closed it again then repeated the motion a few times, going through the process of talking without any sound coming out as she simple couldn't think of what to say.

"Are you sure?" she asked quietly, her voice threatening to give up on her again, her dark eyes piercing into him as she looked for some trace that he doubted his words or he knew them to be untrue.

"She told me herself, she can't remember what happened an' she's waitin' for her sister to take her home" he replied quite simply, taking his bat in both hands and tapping the end into his palm distractingly.

Jean nodded as she took aboard this new information, somehow that seemed to make sense, such perfect terrible sense, that was most likely why she had gotten the feeling that something was off about the little girl and why Cyrus was so interested in her as he had realised before when he had first imprisoned her in the basement, he had asked her what was the last thing she could remember before she was at the place of her death and became angry. Why hadn't she seen it before? It seemed so clear now, but how could she not know she was dead? Perhaps she had died very recently and didn't have the time to realise, she reasoned. If this was true and Alyssa didn't know that her life had already ended, which seemed likely looking back on it all, then how were they supposed to tell her? How could you tell a little child that she was dead and couldn't ever see her family again, unless she was able to pass on but after everything she had witnessed as a ghost that didn't look very possible for them, after all The Pilgrimess, The Hammer and The Jackal had died centuries ago but they were still as trapped by their own hatred and despair as they were the day they died, even so she hoped that the little girl could find a way to escape her after death imprisonment because she didn't seem like the others, she still had hope. However perhaps by telling her the truth they would be destroying that only hope, and how could she do that? Knowing that it may be the only thing keeping her going, she couldn't destroy her like that, not when she had already suffered so much. Though, was it alright for her to say nothing and let the child to continue to be unaware? People say that ignorance is bliss, but is it really? Alyssa was frightened and incredibly confused by what was happening to her and surely it would only get worse and she was bound to find out some time, so maybe it was kinder to sit her down and calmly talk to her about it rather than her learning the truth from Cyrus or even The Jackal.

That led her back to her original thoughts, how could she tell her if it was the only thing that had stopped her so far from being taken over by her death emotions? What if she told her and she did remember, why bring back all that unwanted pain? Why should she make a child remember that she was kidnapped, brutally raped and tortured and then killed in such a horrible way? When it would only bring more suffering to her? She had died completely alone, far away from her loving family and so hurt and frightened, by saying nothing she wouldn't remember, she had told Cyrus the last thing she remembered was being with her sister so wasn't it best to let her remember that instead as the last memory from her lifetime? If remembering her sister and believing that she would see her again soon was keeping her going, then surely it was much kinder to let her believe that rather than knowing that she would never see her again. After all, Jean herself had died surrounded by her family as she lay dying in a hospital bed with her beautiful children there and her wonderful husband by her side, tightly holding her burnt hand and telling her how much he loved her with tears running down his face, she had died loved, but poor Alyssa hadn't, she died terrified and with no idea where she or her family was and probably praying until the last moment that someone, anyone would come and save her, but nobody had and she had been murdered by an evil man.

Why should she make her relive all that pain? When she was somewhat happy as she was now.

"We gotta tell her" Royce spoke up, pulling Jean from her troubling thoughts.

Her burnt and partly destroyed face fell into a frown "But why? It will hurt her so much" she asked so quietly, still battling herself inside.

"So ya gonna let her go on forever thinkin' she's alive?" he questioned, the distaste clear in his voice. "What happens when she finally notices she ain't growin' up, or that she can't ever get dry and warm, I've seen her trying to wipe her hands on Billy's shirt when he's huggin' her and then she looks all confused when the water just keeps comin'"

"I know, but how can we tell her? You can't just go up to a child and tell them they're dead"

"Yeah we can" Royce replied simply, clearly not as emotionally attached as she was "Or make Arrow-Head do it, she likes him" he said with a smirk as he tried to lighten the mood, Jean smiled a little for his efforts but it didn't help.

"No, I'll tell her..." Jean sighed, knowing that he was right and that they couldn't let her continue to believe she was alive, it wasn't right, but that didn't make it any easier at all to tell her the truth, why did it have to be like this? Wasn't it enough already that she had been murdered so horribly and now was trapped as a vengeful spirit? Why did such a sweet little girl have to suffer more? She felt herself becoming angry at the world, why was it always the good people that had terrible things happen? Why did evil people get away with these sort of things? Let alone exist. She figured that the one who had murdered Alyssa was probably still out in the wide world somewhere, probably following another little girl for the next time.

"Ya don't have to mother us all the time, you know" Royce spoke up with a concerned look on his torn face "Just because you had kids don't mean you have to take care of everyone if ya don't wanna"

"What do you mean?" Jean looked up to stare at him a little confused.

"You don't wanna tell the kid but you're makin' yourself do it anyway because you're treatin' her like she's yours" he continued explaining, moving his bat into his right hand and gently tapping it against his foot.

"I know what you're saying but she needs someone, so do you and Billy, and Dana" she said, thinking of them all and how she could always ease the tension between them a little with a few calmly spoken words.

"See? mothering us all" Royce replied, confirming his words. Jean gave him a caring smile, although her face still showed the pain she felt, and reached out her hand to fondly ruffle his hair. "Hey, just cause I like you don't mean ya can touch the hair" he rebuffed, stepping back from her and running his hands through his hair to make sure his style wasn't ruined.

"Thank you Royce" she said warmly, reaching out again and this time placing her hand on his unharmed shoulder "Go find Dana, she likes you really but she has trouble trusting people, that's all" she told him, knowing that they did each other good, and that it was mainly because Dana was protecting Alyssa that he joined them, she seemed to calm him down when his temper got the best of him and he seemed to be rather fond of her, and Dana had always been nice to Royce ever since her defended her one time when Susan was encouraging Dana to cut herself and being generally cruel.

"But she never talks to me or anythin', how am I supposed to show her I'm sorry if she don't trust people?" he asked, his pale blue eyes cast downward unhappily.

"Show her that she can trust you" Jean replied kindly, patting his shoulder one last time and watched as he turned around and began walking along the corridor before flickering out of sight. The burnt ghost turned around, listening to the sounds of the children spirits talking, quietly laughing when Billy told her a childish joke. She walked around the corner and watched them silently for a moment and noticed that Alyssa had an adorably smile on her face.

"You're a real cowboy? That's so cool!" the little drowned girl exclaimed, almost jumping up and down in excitement "So, you get to ride horses, right?" she asked, her face lighting up even more at the thought of her favourite animal.

"Course I do" Billy nodded confidently, well he had at least a few times during his lifetime, he remembered his parents taking him to a local ridding stable, although it had been harder than he thought to stay seated on the animal's back, and there had been the time he had decidedly, unwisely, that it would be fun to tease one of the ponies with an apple and had only gotten himself bitten.

"Horses, horses, horses!" she chanted happily bouncing up and down on the spot. Jean bit back a painful sob at the sight, she was happy, she looked truly happy for the first time in the house and now she was going to hurt her so badly, but Royce was right, they couldn't let her think she was alive, she had to explain to her so that she could understand what had happened and perhaps then she could try to help her come to terms with it... but how could she when she was still filled with despair and pain from her own death? It was too much, she just didn't know what the right thing to do was but like Royce she had noticed the little girl trying to wipe herself dry at times and she had noticed the irritated looks on her face when water soaked anything she touched, so she had to explain to her.

"Alyssa, I want to talk to you" she spoke up, knowing that she had to it, no matter how much it was hurting her on the inside to do it.

"Jean, we're playing, do it later" Billy said back in a commanding voice, his eyes going to shoot Jean a look that told her that he didn't want to be disturbed while with his friend, unless she intended to join the game.

"No Billy, I need to talk to her!" Jean scolded, almost growled out, and she shocked herself at her own tone, she hadn't meant to sound threatening at all, it was that the whole situation was so upsetting and stressful. Both children stared at her, and Billy looked ready to argue back but Alyssa walked towards her and took a hold of her hand with a simply smile.

"Okay" she agreed, she knew it was never a good thing to argue with adults and that doing what they wanted often lead to praises and other such things.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Billy whined, not liking to be left out of anything and now even Royce had left so he would be bored, especially if Jean wanted a long conversation, which was a thing that adults seemed to like, with Ally. Jean merely gave him a pleading look over her shoulder as she walked away with the little girl. She took her to another room where she sat down on a large luxurious sofa and patted the space beside her, and the little girl quickly jumped up and sat beside her swinging her legs over the side of the sofa.

"Alyssa, do you know how long you've been alone?" she asked, looking down deeply at the child, still wishing she didn't have to be the one to do this.

The little girl sat in silence for a moment as she stared at the woman with her large eyes, clearly thinking "A while" she answered uncertainly, glancing away to the floor, not wanting the meet her gaze while thinking of these things.

"What year is it?" Jean asked, knowing that the answer to this question would tell her how long Alyssa had been dead, however she just starred back at her confused and then shrugged, well young children didn't pay much mind to dates, in a way years were a difficult concept for children to grasp as as singly year seemed to last forever, or perhaps she had simply forgotten.

"Ok" the woman sighed, before trying another tactic "What's your last name?" she asked, this time as wild stab in the dark, in a last try to discover how long the child had been dead, after all, child abduction cases were always big news and reported in great detail and she hoped that she may have heard something about it on the news during her last few months.

"Carter" the girl replied, still with a confused look, Jean blinked, Alyssa Carter? Yes she had heard of her, but the Alyssa Carter she was thinking of disappeared years ago, so surely she wasn't talking to the same Alyssa Carter.

"Did you live in Washington?" Jean asked, hoping the answer would be no.

"Yes, how did you know?" Alyssa asked, her face lightening up at the mention of the area she lived. And Jean felt something in her being sink, she was that Alyssa Carter? Jean remembered the story quite well as it had been national news at the time because there had been supposedly sightings of the missing child across a number of states, and she remembered feeling at unease with it and it awakened a lot of people to the danger of strangers to their children, and she remembered that at the time her daughter Kathy had been elven, which made it six years ago. The reports said that the missing girl had been walking home from school and she hadn't made it home and was never seen again. And Alyssa had said that walking home was the last thing from her life she could remember, so this is what happened to her, but six years? She had been dead for six years and didn't realise it?

She didn't reply to how she knew that where she lived and continued on, "Ally, I have to tell you something, and this isn't easy to explain so please listen carefully." she began, using the shorted name Billy liked using with her because it was friendlier and less formal. "That day you were walking home with your sister was more than a while ago, it was six years ago, Ally you've been alone for six years" she said, as gently as she possibly could and watched as the girl's water soaked face crumpled in complete confusion.

"What? But, I'm seven, if it was that long I would be" she paused as she seemed to attempt to work it out "More than ten" she finished, her lack of mathematical abilities showing.

"You're thirteen years old" Jean correctly told her, her burnt face showing her anguish as she tried to explain to the child.

"But I'm not any bigger, Lucy is fourteen and she's way bigger than me" Alyssa stated, her hazel eyes glued to the woman, she didn't understand at all, what was she talking about, how could she possibly be thirteen and not feel any older at all? Also, if it really had been six years like she said it had been then why hadn't she been found by now?

"I know it's hard to understand, but you won't age and you won't grow up, you'll stay like this forever" Jean spoke out and quickly carried on seeing Alyssa's mouth open to speak again. "But none of us get any older"

The little girl's face stilled for a moment as she appeared to be in deep thought "You mean, like Peter Pan?" she asked slowly, trying her best to understand what was being told to her. "Are we in Neverland? Cause, that would make lots of sense" she asked, she had always liked the thought of living in Neverland, but if this was it, she found that she would rather be back home with her family, actually even if she was in Neverland and it was just like the story with flying children, pirates, mermaids and fairies she still would rather go home. Jean tried to keep her emotions off her face at that comment, the poor dear was so innocent and sweet.

"Not quiet like Peter Pan, all of us here are here because we're in a way similar and... " Jean trailed off as her voice seemed to die on her, she stared for a moment at the little girl as she tried to find the words to say. Alyssa stared back silently, Jean said they were similar, so perhaps they were here because they were bad after all, even though Royce had told that she wasn't, the thought hurt her deep down, she was bad, that must be why her family hadn't come to get her yet, but if they hadn't in six years did that mean they never would? The sadness from earlier returned as tears welled up in her eyes.

"Jean, did I do something wrong?" the little girl asked, the emotion thick in her light voice and the tears beginning to steadily dribble down her face.

The burnt woman was slightly taken back by this question, why would she think she had done something wrong? When she was the victim in all of this. "No, of course not, what makes you think such a thing?" Jean asked, reaching out a hand and gently stroking her drenched hair.

Alyssa let out a hiccuped sob "Then why don't my mommy and sister love me anymore?" she sobbed as she rubbed her eyes with the back of her small hand, trying desperately to slow the tears to a stop, but they simply kept coming, mingling with the water running down her face.

"I'm sure they love you very much" Jean offered, trying her best to give her some comfort as the situation became harder to deal with.

The little girl turned to look Jean directly again "But why haven't they come and found me yet? We have to go home for Christmas, mommy said she would bring Grampa home so we could all be together especially for Christmas" she wailed, turning away to face forward as she stared down at the ground, and pulled her legs up onto the sofa and wrapped her arms around her knees, appearing as if she was trying to physically hold herself together.

"They lost you at Christmas?" Jean practically whimpered, that fact simply made it all the more painful, she herself had died at Christmas, she could only imagine what the child's poor mother felt, losing her baby during a time when everyone else was so happy.

"I have to go home, I have to make Lucy happy again because she was really angry at me, and I have to give her the present I made for her, and Mrs Potter said she was going to make a big cake and she said I could help, I really miss Lucy and mommy… I really want my mommy" Alyssa cried, the need for her mother rising up above everything else, if what Jean said was true then she hadn't been with her mother for six long years.

"I'm sorry … but you can't go home anymore…" Jean sobbed, her inner pain finally overflowing and tears rushing from her eyes and down her partly burnt face, she reached over and wrapped her arms tightly around Alyssa and pulled her to her, holding the child fiercely.

"What...?" The little girl choked out, the very idea that she couldn't go home hurt her so deeply, her arms limply hanging by her sides as she couldn't seem to make herself move, she could barely think, just the fact that she couldn't go home repeating over and over inside her mind.

"You're dead, you died six years ago..." Jean told her quietly, so quietly that it was hardly audible but Alyssa heard it clearly, and Jean felt her body tense inside her arms "We're ghosts"

Alyssa forced her way out of Jean's hold, sitting back a little on the sofa as she stared at her with wide frightened eyes."but... but, no... we're not dead..." she whimpered, trying to find some argument to prove her wrong.

"Ally, look at me, I died in a fire, my face is burnt" Jean said, watching with painful sadness as more tears ran down the girl's face as she looked closely at her scars "And you drowned, that's why you're always soaked with water" she continued, reaching out and placing her hand on Alyssa's blue skinned arm.

"No..." Alyssa murmured, shaking her head furiously from side to side.

Jean gently took a hold of her hand and gently pressed it again the little girl's chest "Ally, you're heart isn't beating" she said. Alyssa realised that had been the thumping sound she had noticed that Billy didn't have earlier, the thumping sound she remembered was the sound of a heart beating and her mother's heartbeat had always been comforting to her when her mother held her, and a heart needed to work to keep a person alive, and if Billy's wasn't thumping then that meant... and right now with her own hand against her chest she couldn't feel anything, panicking she moved her hand across her chest and pressed harder, determined to find that thumping sensation. Her shoulders began to shake and her lower lip trembled dangerously as she couldn't find anything at all, just the coldness and water running down her body.

"I can't be dead..." she whimpered, the fear plain of her face. Jean reached out to try to comfort her again when the little girl suddenly jumped out, her small hands clutched tightly to her head. "No! You're lying!" she screamed, leaping off of the sofa and darting out of the room with impressive speed.

"Ally!" Jean shouted after her, hoping the girl would stop, not this again, they had only just got her back.

Billy had been standing just outside the door, the boredom plainly written across her face, annoyed that Jean wasn't involving him in whatever it was they were doing in there, when Ally suddenly started crying and ran out of the room and past him, he blinked, his mind trying to catch up with what had just happened and it wasn't until he heard Jean calling after her that he realised that she was running off again. He turned sharply and dashed after her, managing to catch up with her and lock his arms around her waist.

"Ally! Where are you going? I told you no more running away!" he yelled angrily as she fought strongly against and grasped a handful of her short hair when she sank her teeth down into his arm. Jean hurried over to them and yanked Alyssa away from Billy where she was attempting to hit him with her fists and held her tightly to her.

"Ally please calm down" she begged, gripping the girl's arms to her sides.

"No... no..." the little girl whimpered, the tears running down at full speed as she tried to not believe what she was being told, shaking her head.

"It'll be ok Ally, it'll be ok" Jean soothed her, rocking her back and fourth as she tried to calm her, the guilt burning her inside knowing that the pain the child felt was her fault.

* * *

**_ Cybil-kitty_** Ok, I really need to go to bed so this was rushed and I didn't review it fully but I tried my best, it should be longer but I really wanted to post it tonight, so sorry, and always please review!


	10. Abandoned

Alyssa's frantic breath came out in panted clouds of white steam from the bitter cold air as she forced her small and hurt body to go as fast as she could, which proved to be a constant battle because of the burning pain between her legs where blood continued to drip from and that deep snow that came just past her knees and seemed to do it's best to slow her down. Her heart thundering inside her chest and her blood driven at an intense pace and pulsing painfully in her ears. Yet despite her body aching to stop and rest she knew she couldn't, because if she did the man wolud catch her and if that happened he would take her back to that house and continue to hurt her, he said he would never let her go and that if he caught her trying to escape he would kill her. The little girl pushed her body faster as she darted through the trees.

"Come back here you little bitch!" a furious male voice echoed throughout the woodland in the direction she was running from, causing a terrified cry to erupt up from her throat. The snow was becoming thicker in the wind and almost blinding, biting at her eyes and causing them to sting from the irritation, she knew she had to stop soon, the snow and the pain was slowing her down and she had no idea where she was or where she was going, and the man was not far behind her battling through the harsh weather to reach her. With a fresh burst of speed she dodged around a tree and sharply turned, changing her direction in hopes of loosing her captor, and she continued on till she saw a dead fallen tree laying along the ground partly hidden by the snow, its roots twisting and bending it the air above the ground where they had been ripped out when the tree fell and its body hollowed out cavity caused by the dead tree rotting, and without another thought she dived towards it and crawled inside it. She strained her ears, listening to every sound in the surrounding environment peeking out through small cracks in the wood and the gaping wound she had entered through as tears still trickled steadily down her chilled face and cutting through the thin layer of frost that had built over her skin when she had ran, the cold air burning her windpipe and lungs painfully. The howling of the wind through the trees made it harder to listen out for the warning signs that her attacker was near but even so she couldn't see or hear any trace of him and so she took this opportunity to try and discover where exactly she was but unfortunately she didn't recognise anything at all and the snow wasn't helping by covering the landscape in a white blanket.

'Lucy, please save me" she thought as she watched the snow flakes swirling in the wind, still carrying the hope with her that there was a way out of this, that she would be saved and this would end soon then she could go home to where she belonged with her mother and sister. Surely someone would come along and help her, they would keep away the evil man, Steven, she remembered with distaste when he had told her his name and he had acted somewhat nice although she had never believed he was in anyway kind, he had talked to her after he had taken her to his house and he had told her had followed her because he wanted to know her as he was in love with her and she had to stay with him now. Steven was insane and it was frightening, he would kill her if he found her now, she had to get away somehow.

She glanced up briefly at the sky, the bright moon was barely visible behind dark clouds through the dense trees and she couldn't help but think that there was no way out of this place, she was so far away from anywhere she knew and the forest was so large, it was so cold, she knew it was possible that she would never be able to return home.

She was lost in a dark forest, just like Hansel and Gretel.

By the time she heard the heavy footsteps in the snow stomping towards her it was too late "There you are!" the large man yelled, she clambered out of the dead tree and dashed madly through the thick snow without even looking where he was, the only thought in her mind was to get as far away from him as possible. She continued to desperately fight her way through the snow feeling sick to her stomach hearing the man coming closer but she couldn't go any faster, the snow and pain working together to keep her from escaping. She let out a blood curdling scream when large hands grabbed onto her shoulder from behind and his fingers sank in to insure she couldn't break free.

"No! Go away!" she screeched as he forcefully pushed her down into the snow and sat on her lower back to pin her to the ground. "Please stop!" she cried, her small hands scrabbling through the snow and clawing at the frozen ground hidden beneath, trying frantically to grip onto something she could use to pull herself away with. "No! Please don't!" the pitiful wail however had no effect on the man as he reached back behind him and take a hold of a shovel he had been carrying but dropped to the ground when he had grabbed his soon to be victim, he brought the hand back in front of his back and raised the shovel in the air and aimed. The shovel came down powerfully, dealing a sharp vicious blow to the back of child's head with the resulting metallic thud and ringing in the man's ears as he lifted his weapon again and swung the steel blade back down, blood splattering and staining the surrounding snow a deep red.

The little girl's cries abruptly stopped and she laid there as her attacker moved off of her small body with her face turned to the side in the deep snow, barely concious and unable to move feeling the warmth of her blood trickily down to the ground. Her unfocused hazel eyes staring out at the frozen environment and even in her broken state she could still feel the pain, not only of her physical wounds, but the pain of everything that had happened.

Why did it turn out like this? Why hadn't anyone saved her? Didn't anyone care? If only people had believed her, then this wouldn't have to happen, if they just listened she would have been free of this fate. Lucy had promised that she would always be there to protect her, it was always Lucy who could make her smile, even at a time like this, by simply being there with her and giving her to encouragement she needed, but now, being here all alone dying in the snow she couldn't see any sign of hope anymore. Didn't Lucy see how much she loved her? That she would do so much to help her if she had to. Alyssa would have done anything within her power to save her family and yet she had been ignored and abandoned when she loved them so much. Was she really that unimportant that she could be pushed aside so easily? Was she so insignificant that she was forgotten and left to die here? Hadn't Lucy noticed all the things she did for her? Lucy was her best friend, at least she thought she was, even so she still loved her that she still would so anything for her, and it hurt, it hurt so deeply knowing that Lucy wouldn't even try to save her now. Would Lucy miss her? It didn't seem likely, when they had last been together Lucy looked so angry and sickened by her, she remembered the look of hate on her sister's face when she had left her standing alone in the street, no Lucy wouldn't miss her.

'We were so close' was the last bitter heart broken thought she had as her failed body was dragged away, leaving only red snow behind her.

* * *

Jean had become worried when the child in her arms had fell completely silent with no more jerking movements to try and fight her off and the painful sobbing, she leaned back and peered down to see that Alyssa was merely staring forward at nothing with unfocused eyes from where tears constantly ran down her face and collected with the water that dripped to the floor. "Ally?" she asked, tilting the girl's head up so she could look directly into her blank eyes "Ally, please say something" she begged, reaching up and cupping her face gently, the water running along her wrists and down her forearms. However Alyssa merely continued staring blankly, Jean tapped her hand against her face trying to get her attention and when that failed she tapped a bit harder and waved her other hand in front of the girl's face.

"Jean, what's wrong with Ally?" Billy asked worriedly, walking over to stand closer to them, although he was still annoyed that his friend had tried to run away again and then attacked him when he stopped her. Jean's eyes flickered to him and then back to the child in arms.

"I don't know" she answered honestly knowing that there was little point in lying to him "She didn't understand that she's dead so I told her the truth" she said, the sadness strong in her voice and in her expression.

"Why did you tell her?" Billy asked, in a accusatory tone, wanting to know why Jean had told her when it was obvious that it would only hurt her, if she was happier thinking she was still alive then Jean shouldn't have said anything at all! Jean had no right to do that to her, and now Alyssa wasn't even responding to them, now she would most probably hate them for making her understand what had happened to her, she was his friend and so Jean should have told him first! If she had he would have protected her from the truth because it better if she was confused but happier than this! The way she sat there not moving at all, not even blinking she looked like a corpse! He knelt down beside them with her eyes locked on his younger friend. "She's not moving or anything now!" he exclaimed angrily, just when things were looking a little better and Ally was happy with him Jean had to go and ruin it by upsetting her. "I think you killed her" he mumbled unhappily with his eyes starting to sting with tears. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gently shook her, still trying to encourage some response in her.

"Billy you can't kill someone who's already dead" Jean told him with assurance in her words, however she wasn't certain that it was true, after all it was only six months ago when she could easily say that there were no such things as ghosts without any doubt whatsoever and already in her short time after dead she had seen many strange and often terrifying things, so what was to say that a ghost couldn't die? or at least go into an unresponsive state of shock.

"But then what's wrong with her?" Billy whined with his eyes shifting up to give Jean and exasperated glance, desperately wanting to know what was wrong with his friend.

"I don't know Billy" Jean stated once again this time in a agitated snap "I have no idea why she's like this but I couldn't just stand by and say nothing!" she proclaimed emotionally, unintentionally clutching the child in her arms closer to her body.

"Don't touch me!" Alyssa screamed suddenly and shoved Jean over while leaping out of her arms and ran like a cat on fire down the coridoor and around a turn.

"Ally!" Billy cried as he lunged after her however she flickered and soon vanished from sight, leaving Billy chasing thin air. "We have to stop her doing that!" he wailed, failing his arms and stamping his foot in a mini tantrum.

Jean walked up to stand beside him, a dishearted look on her face "She certainly moves fast for someone so small" she sighed.

"We gotta go find her!" Billy spoke up, the determination clear and strong in his young voice, Jean nodded and followed him as they went out once again to find Alyssa.

* * *

Dana was alone in the luxurious bathroom as she sat with her arms wrapped around her legs and her head resting on her knees in the bloodied water, one hand tightly clutching her butcher's knife. All she wanted was to go home, to her old bathroom where people didn't look at her, they didn't even know she was there most of the time and that's how she wanted it to be because she hated it when they looked at her, their eyes always judging her critically. Here when the other ghosts looked at her they all seemed to think she was a stupid ungrateful brat for throwing her own life away when they had theirs so unfairly taken from them. They just didn't understand what it was like to be so hideous, so utterly and completely unloved, her past boyfriends had all been right when the called her ugly, when they hit her and yelled at her for being such an idiot, no one in their right mind would want her anymore, not when she was so broken. That raised a question, what did The Torn Prince want with her then? He acted like her cared about her, like he wanted to help her. However she wasn't going to let his deceitful lies fool her as all the men in her life before had been nice and caring to start with, it was how they trapped her and then wouldn't let her go once the abuse started. No, she wouldn't let herself fall for that again.

She lifted her arm up to the side and gazed at the deep gashes, when she had gone up to her bathroom with a knife in her hands after returning home that night with a damaged eye she had never thought it would be like this, when you died the pain was supposed to end but it didn't it just stayed there as strong as when she had been lying in the bath bleeding to death. She knew killing herself was a sin but didn't she deserve some rest? Hadn't she been good enough to others during her lifetime to deserve something better than this? She couldn't help but wonder if she had known that it would be like this would she still have killed herself?

It didn't matter now anyway if Royce acted kind to her because he had already called her hedious, but he was right though, of course The Baby would be scared of her when she looked the way she did, The Baby was lucky she was pretty and cute, she would have grown into a beautiful woman if she had the chance to. Even so, it still hurt painfully when Royce had spoke those words no matter how true they were.

"Dana!" she raised her head and saw Royce standing in the doorway, well speak of the devil and he will appear as the saying goes.

"What do you want?" she snarled at him and held her knife out threateningly towards him, hoping that if she acted strong he would leave her alone and stop looking at her and pretending that he cared.

"Look, I'm real sorry 'bout what I said to you, I didn't mean in at all it's just The Baby was screwin' with my head, she was starin' and then Billy sayin' I scared her with how I looked an' I know that's a lame reason but the way she was lookin' at me was like I was the guy who killed her, anyway I honestly didn't mean to yell at ya like that, it was wrong and I'm really, really sorry" he blurted out very quickly and for a few moments Dana merely stared at him as she tried to understand what he was saying, he had become upset because The Baby had stared at him and Billy called him ugly? Was he saying that he was like her and didn't want people looking at him? But that couldn't be it, Royce was the sort of person that craved attention and most likely died in a race that would gain him fame in his social circle, he was by no means shy nor did he lack confidence, so why would he be so bothered by the children looking at him?

"Even if you didn't mean it, why do you care?" she asked in a mumbled voice, wishing that he would just leave her alone. He had nothing to gain from her, she wouldn't let him trick her like all the men before.

"'Cause I don't want to see ya hurtin', I don't like it when you ain't happy and cut yourself" he said noticeably quiet with his light blue eyes glued to the floor.

"Why do you keep bothering me? Why not go hang around Susan?" she questioned suspiously gazing only at the red bathwater she sat in, Susan was far more attractive than she was and she was more compatible with Royce's jock nature.

He gave a choked back laugh "'Cause Susan's a stalkin' bitch" he replied simply, causing the slightest of smiles on Dana's sliced face, he was right the way Susan chased him all the time was just like a stalker. "Ya shoulda seen her earlier she seriously thinks that me an' her should be together, like I would want a freak like her anyway so I smashed the bitch right in the face" he told her triumphantly, tapping his bat into his free hand as he remembered just how good it felt to use it on her.

"She certainly deserves it" Dana said, the fact that Susan had been so completely rejected made her feel a little bit better, but the strong pain was still there and she still didn't want to trust him, or any of the others ideally because if she didn't trust them and be friendly with them it wouldn't hurt so much when they didn't keep their promises and betray her, Jean was the only one she would think about trusting because she reminded her a lot of her own mother who had passed away peacefully when she was eleven after years of struggling with cancer.

Outside of the room a odd sound emerged, it sounded a lot like someone was crying and huffing and in a few sort moments a little blonde haired figure ran past the door causing them to both stop and stare.

"Was that The Baby?" Royce asked cocking his head to the side as he continued to look out the door, completely side tracked for the moment.

"I thought Jean and Billy were watching her" Dana uttered, shifting about in the bathtub, and then realised her mistake by calling them by their real names, it made it sound like she cared for them too much.

"Ya know what, I'm gonna go stuff her in that case of 'ers, that will stop the kid escaping" he said and headed out of the door.

* * *

Alyssa scurried along the dark glass corridors puffing as she went, she couldn't remember the last time she had to run like this, it vaguely reminded her that snowy woodland, all she seemed to have done since she was brought to this house was run away from people, she missed her lake, she never had to run around there and nobody ever tried to hurt her, it was just her and the fishies. She slowed to a stop in a room that like the others was decorated with beautiful and expensive artefacts, she stepped in further and looked around, wanting a place to hide. She decided on grabbing two large dark throw blankets and tugging them over to an attractive coffee table with the legs carved to have wines and roses twisting around them, she pulled one blanket over the table which was long enough to reach the ground covering the table completely and then crawled under it taking the other blanket with her and wrapping it around her self like a cocoon. She laid wrapped in the blanket on the floor and pressed her face into the softness that became thoroughly soaked through in a very short amount of time, she frowned at that, where was the water coming from? She didn't want to ponder the issue for too long for fear of the answer. Jean said it was because she was a ghost, but that simply couldn't be true, she refused to believe it.

There simply had to be another explanation for all of the strange happenings that had recently occurred, Jean must be lying, that was the only reasonable thing she could think of but she had no idea why Jean would say such horrible things when she had only just met her, whatever it was all she knew was that she certainly wasn't dead it was simply just impossible, she was alive and so were all the others, even if they were very strange and scary. The story about her being alone for six long years was also a lie, she was not fourteen, she only seven years old, and even if somehow she was that much older she would be at home by now, she wouldn't have been left for that long, her family wouldn't have abandoned her.

However, she couldn't help but feel the doubt growing insistently in the back of her mind, like being continually jabbed in the back with a sharp stick reminding her of its presence, and even though she didn't want to admit it, she had been at that lake an awfully long time watching as the yearly snow would turn everything into a frozen wasteland, it was when the snow was there that she felt the most unhappy, it was the time when she had the terrible feelings that she was frightened by the lake, like something bad was hiding at the bottom ready to attack her, that something bad was going to happen or perhaps already had. Eventually she had lost count of how many winters she had seen there, it just seemed to blend together and that she only noticed the snow because of the deep fear it was always accompanied by. She knew that Winter only came once a year, which was a strange thing to consider now that she could only really remember the snow being there most of the time, which she supposed was a silly thing not to notice before but it had somehow made sense to her before, that the snow was often there, and since she had seen a collection of winters past by that surely meant that it had been years. But still, why was she still alone? Didn't they want her back? Didn't they miss her at all?

Why did they leave her? She thought they loved her, but apparently not enough to bother to save her, Lucy had walked away from her, Lucy had left her alone, that thought kept going around and around in her mind, Lucy was her big sister and she was supposed to look after her but she clearly didn't care to do it, her friends had said that she was just making it up when she had told them about the man watching and following her, Mrs Potter had said she was being silly worrying about nothing, and even her mother hadn't paid attention to her, always saying that she didn't have the time or they would talk about it later as she rushed out of the door, she hadn't listened, none of them had. Even so, it was Lucy's actions that stood out from the others, Lucy had called her a liar and hit her, she remembered that now, but what had she done to make Lucy hate her so much? Lucy was her older sister, it was Lucy that had defended her when she was being bullied at school, it was Lucy that would always be there to play ponies with her, it had been Lucy she had run to at the middle of the night in a thunder storm, and it should have been Lucy who believed her. In the end though, she hadn't and the evil man must have captured her and ... and then killed her? She shook her head trying to rid herself of that painful thought, she wasn't dead. However, if she wasn't dead what had happened? Before she hadn't remembered anything but things were slowly starting to come back, like the last time she had been with Lucy and then there had been that snowy forest, but she didn't know what that was and she certainty didn't want to know or even acknowledged the dream she had seen it in but it had all seemed so real, she could still sense the pain of knowing that she had been abandoned there, nobody had been there to help her, and if she thought about it too long it seemed to fit, it made too much sense for it not to be real.

In her cocoon form she reached her hand up and gently touched the bloodied wound in her skull, in the dream she had been hit with a shovel by the scary man and she didn't have any other possible reason for the injury to be there. As her little fingers brushed against her damaged head she let out a high pitched cry of pain as an agonising bursting spasm tore through her skull, she clamped her hands down onto her head protectively to try to stop the pain but it did nothing as the pain only grew, like fire burning through her small body. A shrill and deafening scream bubbling up from her throat.

"Help!" she screeched, though unsure why being that she had been trying to hide just moments ago, but the pain blocked out all the reasons why she wanted to be alone and now only wanted someone to come and take the pain away, to make it stop. "Mommy!" she called in a agonised yell , her body thrashing about so much that she laid partly uncovered by the thick blanket she had wrapped herself in "Mommy save me!"

But her mother wasn't coming to save her she realised, her mother didn't want her anymore, didn't love her anymore because if she did then she would be here right now and yet she wasn't. She had been abandoned.

What had she done to make them hate her this much? What had she done wrong to deserve this? She had always tried to be a good little girl, but that wasn't apparently enough, was it? Now the people she thought loved her disliked her so much that they didn't care what happened to her, they didn't care that she was trapped in a house full of monsters. She hadn't really noticed before but now she could clearly see that they weren't normal, Jean had pointed out her burnt face, Billy had an arrow in his head and the big scary monster like man that had been with the crazy one looked very much like one of the zombies out of those frightening movies Lucy liked to watch.

She cried out again as the pain continued to spread and deepen, "It hurts!" she wailed, barely aware of her surroundings enough to realise that even though she was the one screaming it didn't sound much like a small child should, more like something not at all human.

"Hey kid, that you?" a voice rang out "What's wrong with ya?" and suddenly hands grabbed a hold her her and attempted to drag her out from under the table.

"Shit!" Royce yelped and he pulled his hands back away from her as the coldness emitted by her stung him so badly it felt like he had been burnt instead, he momentarily glanced up at Dana who stood beside his crouched form then back to the small body thrashing partly hidden by a soaked blanket, he reached back and gripped the blanket that was wrapped around her and dragged her forcefully, letting out a small hiss at the pain stabbing its way into his arms up through his hands, and then let her lay down back fully, watching her fitfully twisting and turning in pain.

"What's wrong?" Dana asked quietly watching the scene playing out in front of her, knowing that she had never seen something like this before, she briefly wondered if during her lifetime The Baby had been a sufferer of Epileptic fits and it had somehow turned into this after death, but then again it didn't look like a fit as people have a seizure didn't scream in agony like that. The little girl's eyes snapped open to revile that they were a brightly burning violet colour.

"Help!" the girl screamed out again, her voice mutilated and doubled sounding much more like the dying cry of some crazed wild animal than of a human child. Royce scooted back away from her clearly startled.

"What the hell?" he squeaked, rather unmanly, the disturbing scene before him shocking him into silence. Neither noticing the way the bracelet on the child's wrist glowed for a moment and then it seemed to be over, leaving the poor little girl panting deeply as tears ran down her face as she tried to sit up wobbly.

"What was that about?" Royce asked her, placing his hand on her head and turning her to look at him, she stared at him before suddenly letting out a small screech and jumping up, whoever Royce had suspecting that she would do something like this and wrapped his hands firmly around her wrists and stood up lifting her off the ground and letting her hang in the air while she kicked and twisted in his grasp. "Ya really think I'm gonna let ya go again?" he asked, somewhat amused.

"Let go you bastard!" she screeched, trying to land a kick to his gut and Royce smirked at her.

"Naughty girl, who taught ya that?" he chuckled, strangely amused by the sound of her cute little voice coming out with something like that, and he easily tucked her under his arm, knowing that Billy and Jean were probably looking for her, again.

* * *

Sophia Carter raised her eyes from the cup of tea in her hands, it had long been cold and she had no appetite for it whatsoever, and finally giving up and knowing that she wouldn't have drunk it anyway, placed it back down on the coffee table sitting in front of her and leaned further back in the comfortable armchair she rested in. She had only made the drink because she had wanted something to attempt to keep herself busy with, the garden was weeded and well tended to, the dishes had been washed and put away, the dusting and hovering had been done, the pottering about and picking up odd items and putting them in their proper place or in fact rearranging some items, multiple times, seeing as the small pot of violets didn't seem to look quite right anywhere she put them, every little task had been completed, and she was well aware that none of this really needed doing as the house as always tidy. She simply hated the waiting, sitting around and waiting for reasons that never came, the clues that were never found, and she was also incredibly aware that Alyssa's room didn't need to be tidied every so many hours because not many went in there, never having to go in a make the bed that had been left a mess after her youngest had left for school in the morning, never having to pick up the many tiny and often irritating small toys and crayons that littered the floor, never having to go in to put away her freshly clean and ironed clothes away to find the ones that were in the drawers had been pushed aside and screwed up from her daughter routing through for her favourite shirt or a missing toy that she was convinced must be in with her clothing.

She simply couldn't just sit around, she had to do something to keep her mind busy, she couldn't stand all of this waiting.

She had tried to keep busy, she worked mostly full time, she had friends of her own and she still had another child to take care or, yet she often found herself taking time of or being sent home from work, her friends had began to stop calling and even when she was with them she hated the pitied looks in their eyes and her eldest daughter was in an even worse state than she was. Lucy was suffering badly with the disappearance of her sister, she had tried to tell her daughter many times that she couldn't keep blaming herself, that she tried her best and she couldn't have done anything else The day she came back in the evening after work to find Lucy distraught after she had been running around town for hours searching, she had sat her child down and tried to make sense of her unintelligible wails and broken works among the river of tears and eventually learned that Alyssa hadn't come home and nobody had seen her since just after school. She had tried to remain calm and collected even though she was falling apart on the inside as she reported her daughter missing and was told to wait after a brief talk with the police.

She waited all night beside the phone for the call from the police saying that they had found her daughter, that she had simply been hiding out at one of her friends houses playing some sort of game or cruel prank on her sister, although it wasn't in her character to intentionally upset someone this much, and then the next morning she went out and searched the streets and the surrounding fields and woodlands with most of the town's adults.

The waiting was unbearable, every minute that she didn't have her baby in her arms seemed like forever, every minute all slowly killing her. She continued to wait however, the minutes turned into hours, the hours turned into days, days into weeks, weeks into months and finally months turned into years.

Six years was a very long time to be waiting.

Although it had been years she was still stuck in that day Alyssa disappeared and couldn't move on with her life until she found her child, others suggested it was time to move on and let go, doctors, therapists and even her ex-husband. Before they had been on good terms, when Alyssa was still young they had both agreed that the thing that had brought them together wasn't there anymore and been mature about it, she was even rather fond of the woman he married afterwards and he made an effort to be involved in his children's lives but now she never wanted to see him, he had given up and wanted to accept that Alyssa was gone, how could he just simply give up? Alyssa deserved so much more than people giving up on her, pushing away the memories of her and forgetting her. It was easier for him though, he had three children or his own now and he had moved away from the town, while she stayed in the same house with Alyssa's room practically untouched for years, and she had thought a few times about moving away, or at least to another house but then she couldn't find in herself to go, what if Alyssa one day came back looking for them? She couldn't stand the idea of her daughter knocking on the door one day and they weren't here. So she continued to wait.

It was breaking her heart when she saw how everyone was giving up, even Lucy had, she hadn't stopped looking for her sister but she was convinced that she was dead and that there was only rotten remains to be found and brought home now to be put to rest. However she still held the belief that her daughter was still alive and out there somewhere, maybe the people who had taken her still had her, perhaps it was a person who desperately wanted a child and was willing to steal to have one, she really hoped this is what had happened, because if it had been someone who only wanted a child of their own and kept Alyssa then she would be safe and taken care of, and most importantly alive, and because the other possibilities were too painful to consider. She wondered that if this was the case and she perhaps met the person who had taken her child, if she would forgive them as even though they had taken her baby from her they had kept her safe and perhaps if Alyssa had come to love her new parents she would let her stay with them, she just wanted her dear little girl to be happy and out of harms way.

She picked up the photo frame that sat on the coffee table, inside was a image of her daughter how she would most likely look now, it had been created by a computer age-profession expert who had been on the case with the police and detectives by using old photos and the child and family members, it was odd looking at a picture that showed the age difference without being able to watch as she grew up, though it was still completely her little girl, she had lost most of the baby roundness to her face and her cheekbones were more defined, Sophia noted that she looked a lot like she had herself at that age.

The picture gave her hope that she would one day find her baby, she refused to give up and stop waiting despite that every time the phone rang she hoped it was someone who knew where her child was, or every time when there was a knock at the door she imagined it was her daughter, but then Alyssa wouldn't knock, she would just come straight in. She remained hopeful for the day when Alyssa would walk through the door and run into her arms.

* * *

**_Cybil-kitt_**y- I'm sorry I haven't posted in a long time, but I'm at college and get a lot of work, so I would post more if I could, but my teachers of evil, constantly making hold the crickets and cockroaches (I do animal care) and I apologise to my friend Steven for using his name for a crazy murderer, and yeaah, um, there's a link in my profile to a doodle (the key word being doodle) of Alyssa I posted if your interested, and as always please review!


	11. In Passing

Cybil-Kitty- I'm very sorry I haven't updated for so long, I didn't mean for it to happen, but a lot of things have happened in my life within the last year and its been really hard to write, but I hope to start updating more often again, so I hope you enjoy the first chapter in a while! I did want this out for christmas, but I was simply too busy over the holiday, and also there is another scene with The Jackal in this, so be warned, and yeah I hope you like the chapter!

* * *

"Let me go! Let me go!" Ally wailed thrashing violently, her little legs kicking out behind them and her arms clawing and punching against the chest of the boy carrying her, trying to inflict as much pain as she possibly could and he hissed in reply when her fist connected with his torn flesh.

"Nope, not gonna happen, now shut up and keep still!" he growled, trying his best to not last out back at her. He glance over to Dana who walked silently beside him, watching closely.

"Please put me down!" she sobbed, tears running down, but Royce ignored her still, he was getting tired of all of this crying and running off, really. why did he have to keep helping her if she didn't want it anyway? If she was just going to fight them all the time like this what of the point of wasting so much energy over her? "Please let me go, I just want to go home, I want my mommy" she had stopped struggling so much for the moment, which he saw as a blessing, and he breathed in a relived sigh as the blood oozing from his wounds slowed, even though her freezing water still chilled him very uncomfortably.

"Please don't hurt me anymore, if you let me go now I won't tell anyone what you did to me, I'll keep it a secret, so please take me home" she spoke softly, the fear and pain still clear as day in her voice, yet there was a lift to it, there was hope in her words. Royce slowed his pace a little, what was she going on about? Maybe the fact that he had wanted to hurt her earlier, he supposed, not that it mattered now as he had no plans to harm her, he had even gone to all of this trouble for her, so he didn't take much notice of the girl who was quietly crying into his chest. "Please let me go, you said you're my friend Steven" his mind came to a direct halt at the small whimpering voice, standing in a dark corridor his eyes flickered over to Dana and then down to stare at the child spirit in his arms as they both realised that she wasn't speaking about him, he looked back at Dana who turned her sliced face away in shame.

The Baby wasn't talking to them, she was repeating something from her lifetime, like an echo of something uttered in the past.

It was something that a ghost may do unconsciously when thinking too much of their fate and wallowing in their death emotions. Dana had done it once and all of the other eleven phantoms had heard her tearful apolody to her last boyfriend for not being good enough for him, Susan had taunted her and called her pathetic afterwards for a good while.

"I'm sorry!" The Baby's shrill cry alerted him as she began to struggle again "I don't want to go back in there! Don't make me go in the bed!" Royce's half shredded face crumpled in a grimace, he didn't want to have to listen to this, he didn't want to hear the voice of a little girl being molested. "I don't like it when we go in the bedroom! It hurts!" she wailed as she tried to fight him off again, all the more terrified and desperate. He struggled to keep his hold but couldn't stand the burning pain every time she struck his skinned body and he quickly lowered her to the floor, but she fell out of his grasp as her small hand clenched onto his right arm and her sharp fingernails dug into the open muscle.

"Shit! he growled out, holding the arm protectively to his chest "Stupid kid" his bright blue eyes watering from the pain. He watched as she laid on the hard glass floor, writhing in as her cries grew louder. Her legs thrashing about violently and her hands clawing above her trying to fight off whatever she was seeing, she screamed, long and loud, the sound excruciating as blood seeped from between her thighs. Royce was sickened at the sight of the cherry red liquid and was determined to stop this so he wouldn't have to watch anymore, he had wanted to help Dana when she was suffering but they had been trapped in those small cells at the time and he had to stand by and watch her break down crying. He knelt down beside her and grabbed the child by the shoulders and shook her, hastily trying to make her come back to the present and so tugged her upper body up so she was somewhat sitting on the floor in his hands, which in hindsight hadn't been the best judgement as her tear filled eyes snapped open, looking at him with horror filled, yet aware and lucid eyes to find another man over her with his hands on her holding her still.

Royce could see what was going to happen before it did, yet that didn't prepare him for the awful sound she emitted as her body bolted back into motion and fought him viciously, thrashing beneath him. He was about to get up off her when she leaned up and sank her sharp teeth into his wounded shoulder, hard. He shrieked out his pain and threw himself away from her small form, and he watched with his pale eyes watering in agony as she scrabbled out from under him and climbed to her feet hastily "Get away from me!" the dead child screeched as she ran from him and dashed into out of the room into another.

He stared at her with shock on his mutilated face at first, which then mophed into anger "For fucks sake!" he cursed in fury, leaping to his own feet and charging after her, fed up and not wanting to have to search for her another time, because frankly this was getting bloody ridiculous. Unfortunately her small form flickered in and out of sight for a moment then disappeared all together and she was gone, again.

"Fucking hell!" Royce howled, lashing out and punching his left fist into the strange glass of the wall beside him. "What is wrong with that brat?" he snarled out "We keep trying to help her and she runs away! Does she want The Jackal to get her or somethin'?"

Dana merely stared at the space The Baby had been silently, until his angry breathing calmed then she uttered "Why do you care?" her words almost had no volume to them and her dark eyes turned away from his light ones focused on her ruined face.

"Cause Jean told me to" he bit out simply, feeling annoyed.

"But that still doesn't answer it, why do you care about her? You never cared about Billy this much so why are you going to all this trouble just for her?" she asked, wondering what motive he could possibly have to help The Baby.

"Billy was never chased about like this" he muttered, then fully turned towards the naked girl and took a deep breath to ready himself, if he was going to get her to trust him he might as well be honest about his motivations, after all Jean said to show her that he could be trusted, so this could be what she was talking about. "I'm helpin' cause you are, you like the kid and want to keep her safe so I'm protectin' the little brat for ya" he confessed feeling rather stupid while doing it, but then he saw how her face softened, only for a moment, if he hadn't been constantly studying her features he would have missed it all together, yet it still had been there, the way her eyes raised to meet his and the faintest smile that graced her lipstick smudged mouth and suddenly Royce didn't feel so foolish anymore.

"That little girl doesn't deserve this, she should be with the angels on the other side, not trapped here with monsters like us" Dana uttered, her voice a little louder than usual, then she turned and began to walk away from him to start her own search for the child.

Royce grinned "Angels huh? You think we can ever see those so called angels where ever it is where all the good ghosts go? the chances of him ever being with angels seemed so unlikely that it wasn't worth hoping it would happen.

"No, but she's not like us, she's just a little girl and she shouldn't even be here" Dana said, she wanted to add 'and she shouldn't be dead' but that was unnecessary as it was so obvious, besides most of them shouldn't be dead, or at least shouldn't have died the way they did.

"She'll be safe once I've stuffed her into that case, it'll stop her runnin' off and we can watch her at the same time, problem solved" Royce smirked in amusement to himself as he followed after her.

* * *

The Baby panted heavily, her dim and pale hazel eyes that had once burned so brightly with life were wide with terror as they darted about wildly while she continued to run, frantically seeking a way out of the house, out of this glass prison full of monsters. She ran towards the glass in front of her when she came out of the maze of rooms and corridors to where she could see the outside world. Reaching the glass that made up the house's outer wall she placed both hands against it firmly and glanced abut, searching for an opening. To the right a few feet away she caught sight of what appeared to be a door so she sped over to it but could find no handle or latch to open it, fruitlessly she pounded the glass with small fists viciously in desperation and screeched out her distress when she couldn't open it. Pressing her forehead against the panel she began to scratch at it, sobbing against the door as she stared out to the dark forest outside, she scratched and clawed until her fingers hurt which made her withdraw her hands and look at them properly. The skin on her fingertips was gone leaving red raw tissue and her nails were cracked and broken. She didn't remember them being like that before.

Hearing a frightful groan behind her she spun around and screamed at the sight of the upper part of a body wrapped in plastic as it used its arms to crawl towards her, rolling it's decapitated head along as it went. It crawled until it was about ten feet away from her then stopped, placed its hand on its head to face it in her direction, when its eyes landed on her it yelled out something that was too muffled to understand, rolled its head so it stopped by her feet and then the body followed crawling nearer.

Alyssa moved back till she was pressed against the glass, her eyes huge and her mouth open as she panted out fear heavy breaths. Just as the body's fingers were about to grab into her leg she bolted like a nervous foal and darted away from the room and back into the maze of glass. She ran with not direction, no idea where she was going but just wanting to find some way out of this horrible place and away from all the monsters that were coming after her, who were going to hurt her.

"Mama!" she came to a complete stop upon hearing the loud booming voice and looked to where two figures stood hand in hand in front of her, the one who had shouted had his fat arm raised with a sausage like finger pointed at her, he was a giant and very obese wearing nothing but a pair of underwear and a vomit covered bib, he looked like an overgrown baby and could have appeared harmless if it hadn't been for the hateful look of absolute loathing on his round face and the axe in his hand. The woman was much smaller, just a bit taller than Alyssa herself, but she was defiantly an adult and had the face of an older woman, she wore a flower patterned dress that wouldn't look out of place on a doll and her brown hair was tied up with ribbons.

"What I do, mama?" The Great Child asked, staring down at his tiny mother as she stared at the little girl with a distasteful expression, that little brat with her blonde hair and pretty dress, standing there with the same shocked fearful look that she had seen on so many faces during her lifetime when their eyes landed on her and her son, children were always the worst, laughing as they threw rocks and taunted them. She could still hear the jeering voices ringing in her ears and the laughter of the other circus freaks while they threw her back and forth in a sack, treating her like a plaything as she cried and screamed to be let out.

Her eyes tightened as the hate crept on face, she hated people, a lifetime of being laughed at and abused for being born slightly different to everyone else had twisted her once kind heart into an unrecognisable mess of anger and contempt. Children were nasty little bugs that should be squished, and her large son was good at squishing people, her good wonderful boy, who she had sadly failed, she could never protect him, even in death from the mob.

"Get her" was all she uttered, the simple words sent her son into a frenzy, the man-child crashing forward swinging his axe wildly, so eager to please his mother.

"Please leave me alone!" the little girl wailed as she turned and run once again and flickered away from the circus ghosts.

Reappearing in another room in the house, a large one that had no furniture in it and only a floor decorated by a large circular design. She stood shaky, her arms wrapped around her abdomen in an attempt to keep herself steady, she was too tired, exhausted from so much running and disappearing, she just wanted to sit down and rest, she wanted to go home, why was she here? She took in small shaky gasps of air, not being able to take proper lungfuls, her chest heaving painfully, what if she went home and her family didn't want her anymore? Why would they? They would be angry she came back after they had gotten rid of her, had abandoned her.

"Mommy..." she croaked out in between sallow pants, why didn't her mommy love her anymore? Had she really been such a bad little girl during her life?

Her life...

Was gone? But how could she be dead? Why? Why did she have to die? Why wasn't her mommy there?

Because Lucy had left her, Lucy hated her, Steve had taken her away from her home, he had hurt her, and then she had died, and her life was over.

But it couldn't be! She couldn't be dead! She would know! People knew when they died, people went to Heaven to live with the angels when they died. Like her grandma, she died and went to live with the angels, and when her rabbit Nibbles had died they had buried him in the garden and he went to Heaven too. If she was dead then she would be in Heaven too, not here, not alone like this.

She let out a sob, the heartbroken sound seeming so loud in the large and otherwise quiet room, All she wanted was her mommy to come and hug her, she still could remember how it felt in her mother's arms, so safe and warm, her calming heartbeat lulling her to sleep, a kiss on her forehead, the simply gesture that was so full of love.

It was all she wanted, to be with her mother again.

But that wasn't going to happen, not anymore, she was alone.

A harsh breath caught in her chest, pulling at it tightly and making her choke, she coughed loudly, painfully, and after one particularly strong heave she spluttered out water. Her hands clutched at her throat as she continued to hack out more liquid, her eyes wide as it dribbled in a steady stream down her chin, she couldn't breathe.

Was she dead?

Her chest hurt more and more, and she had failed to noticed the form that was carefully coming towards her from behind.

She only realised something was wrong until to strong arms wrapped themselves around her small frame, their claw like fingernails digging into her sides. "Hello!" a manic voice chortled, as she was roughly pulled from the ground and into the body holding her, almost like a frightening imitation of a hug. "I missed you little girl!" he cackled, she screeched out feeling her body pressed against his and the back of her neck against cold sharp metal and hot breath being blown on her.

Alyssa immediately tried to struggle, her hands grasping at his arms and her legs kicking wildly. "I didn't get to play with you last time" he continued, almost conversationally, one hand shot up and locked onto her throat, making her spurt out the water that had still been coming up from within her chest and silence any more sounds from her. He kept his hand on her as he lowered them both to the ground, and Alyssa found herself thrown onto her back with the terrifying man with the long hair and the metal box around his head above her. Her hands clutched at the one still crushing her neck as she fought him, yet she was much smaller than he was, and so tired so she couldn't stop him as the hand that had been laying on her side moved lower and he gave her a nasty smile full of sharp rotten teeth.

"Pretty little girl, be good and I won't have to break you like a whore" he said, still smiling that horrid smile.

_Be a good girl Alyssa, I love you so much._

_Don't! It hurts!_

_Its ok, just be a good girl and it will be alright in a while. Look at you, you're so beautiful. _

_Stop it!_

_Calm down, just drink a bit of this and it will make it feel better._

The agony pounded in her head again as the voices crept up, the pressure building behind her eyes too much, too fast that she couldn't contain it.

"No!" she yelled out, her voice pure raw emotion and overlapped. The Jackal barely getting a look at her bright violet glowing eyes before water burst forth. Water came like a damn had collapsed out of her form, The Jackal being swept away by the force of it and he cackled again as he retreated and disappeared, his scream like laughter barely heard by her over the roar of the water, the waves rushing forward in all directions and travelled up the high glass walls of the room with the power of a tsunami and came back down from the ceiling, so much water, too much. She curled up into a ball as it came rushing over her, curled up as tightly as her body would allow with her hands protectively over her face. Her glowing eyes clenched shut at the freezing water, it flowed down her throat and into her lungs, she couldn't breathe.

* * *

The first thing she was aware of was the pain, the hot agonising pain in the back of her head, next was the noise a rhythmic and something soothing rumbling sound and something a little quieter that she couldn't tell what it was. After that it was the stomach dropping sickness that made her want to vomit and she realised she was moving, bumpy and uncomfortable movements that jerked her body and made her head hurt more.

She tried to move, feeling stiff cramped, she made to stretch out her legs from where she could feel that tightly tucked against her chest but found she couldn't and that something was stopping her, so she tried her arms instead, her elbows aching from where they were packed up at her sides with her hands right in front of her face but again found that she couldn't move them, she couldn't move at all. At this she forced her eyes open and the sickness grew ten times when she couldn't see anything, she couldn't see or move, she was in something, she was in a box.

Her breathing became frightened and ragged as she thrashed about, trying to get out but still could not move at all. It was only at this point that her mind managed to connect to sickening movement and the rumbling sound, a car, she was in a car, and as she continued to strain her hears over the sound of her own laboured breaths and the car's engine she could make out what the other noise was.

_I'm dreaming of a white Christmas_

_Just like the ones I used to know_

_Where the tree tops glisten and children listen_

_To hear slay bells in the snow_

The music was loud, the sound of it almost vibrating the car, she struggled again and began to cry.

"Help! Let me out! Please! Help me!" she screamed, her voice strained and croaking, but still strong enough to hear, her only reply was the radio being turned up all that much louder, so she could be ignored.

_I'm dreaming of a white __Christmas_

_With every Christmas card I write_

"Please! Let me out!"

_May your days be merry and bright_

"Help!"

_And may all of your Christmases be white. _

After a short while the car stopped, the sudden sound of the engine dying alerting her, terrifying her. She heard the car door open and slam shut, the force of it shaking the car, and then the sound of the boot being opened.

She screamed when the thing she was in was heaved up, her small form being shaken about and then dropped, the impact of hitting the ground hurt her, banged her knees and elbows and she wet herself, the warmth of her urine soaking her already slick thighs and trickling to the bottom of the box.

The little girl sobbed, shaking as the container was heaved yet again, along the ground this time, bumping and bruising her on the way.

There was a loud crack, like something was being broken and then she was picked up again and her body tensed for the impact again.

**Splash**

She screeched as the freezing water chilled her and began to fill up the box, she struggled as hard as she could, her poor small fingers frantically clawing at the box, until the skin was burnt off and they bled, yet she still thrashed as she felt herself sink down into the cold, the water filled the box. She held her breath desperately, and still fought for freedom, fought until she could no longer hold the air in her in and she gasped out, water pouring into her open mouth and down her throat.

Her body still thrashed as her lungs filled with icy water, yet she quietened down, the thrashes subsided, her bright eyes, still open in death lost their spark and dulled.

Her life had ended.


End file.
